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1-
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THE
JOURNAL
OF THB
ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
OF LONDON.
SDITEI) BY
FBOFESSOB HUXLEY, LL.D., F.ILS., PBisiDiirT op tbb Socibtt.
GEOROB BUSK, Esq., P.ILS. i COL. A. LANE POX, Hon. Sic.
SIB J. LUBBOCK, Bt., M.P., F.B.S. I HYDE CLARKE, Esq., Fob. Sbo.
Sub-Editor, P. W. BUBLEB, Esq., F.a.S.
NEW SERIES.
Vol. II.
SESSION 1860-70.
LONDON:
TEtJBNEB & CO., 60 PATEBNOSTER BOW.
1870.
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Printed bj Tatlob and Fraxcib, B«d Lion Gonrt, Fleet Street
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CONTENTS.
Pige
Proceedings at the Annual Meeting ix
President's Anniyersaiy Address xvi
last of Fellows zzr
L On the proposed Exploration of Stonehenge bj a Committee of the
British Association. By CoL A. Lane Fox, F.S. A., Hon. Sec 1
IL On the Chinese Race : their Language, Gk>Temmenty Social Institu-
aonB, and Religion. Bj C. T. Gasdnsb, Esq., F.R.O.S. (With
Appendices.) 5
m. On the Races and Languages of Dardistan. By Dr. G. W. Lext-
MBB, M.A. (Abstract) 81
IV. On Quartzite Implements from the Cape of Good Hope. By Sir
Gbobob Gbby, KCB. (With Plate L) 89
V. Note on a supposed Stone Implement from Co. Widdow, Ireland.
By F. ACHBSON, Esq. (With a Woodcut.) 48
VL Note on the Stature of American Indians of the Ohipewyan Tribe.
By Major-General LbfboY; R.A. 44
VII. Report on the present State and Condition of Prehistoric Remains
in the Channel Islands. By lieut S. P. Olivbb, R.A., F.R.G.S.
(With Plates H to X., Woodcut, two Synoptical Tables, and Ap-
pendix.) 46
VUL Description of and Remarks upon an ancient Calyaria from Chinai
which has been supposed to be that of Confucius. By Gbobgb
BuBB, Esq., F.R.S. (With Plate XI.) 78
IX. On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades, from the Fifth to the Nine-
teenth Century. — Part IH. The Comans and Petchenegs. By
H. H. HowoBTH, Esq 88
X. On the Eitai and Kara-Eitai. By Dr. QtmtkV Ofpbbt d7
XL Note on the Use of the New-Zealand Mere. By Col. A. Lane
Fox,F.S.A., Hon. Sec. (With Woodcuts.) 106
Xn. On certain Prehistoric Remains discovered in New Zealand, and
on the Nature of the Deposits in which they occurred. By Dr.
Julius Haast, F.RS. (With Plates XH. and Xm.) 110
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IV CONTENTS.
Page
XIII. On the Origin of the Tasmanians geologically considered. By
James Bonwick, Esq., F.RG.S 121
XIV. On a Frontier-line of Ethnology and Geology. By H. H. Ho-
woBTH, Esq 131
XV. Notes on the Nicobar Islanders. By G. M. Atkinson, Esq. (With
Plate XIV.) 187
XVI. On the Discoyery of Flint and Chert under a submerged Forest in
West Somerset By W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.,
F.G.S Ul
XVII. Report on Prehistoric Remiuns in the Neighbourhood of the
Crinan Canal, Argyllshire. By the Rev. R. J. Maplston 146
X Vni. Supplementary Remarks to a Note on an Ancient Chinese Calva.
By Geobqb Busk, Esq., F.R.S 156
XIX. On Discoveries in Recent Deposits in Yorkshire. By C. Monk-
man, Esq. (With Plates XV. and XVI.) 167
XX. On the Natives of Naga, in Luzon, Philippine Islands. By Dr.
Jaoob 170
XXI. On the Koords. By Major F. Millinoen, F.R.G.S. (With a
Woodcut) 176
XXn. On the Westerly Driftdng of Nomades, from the Fifth to the
Nineteenth Century. — Part IV. The Circassians and White Eha-
zars. By H. H. Howobth, Esq 182
XXTTT. On the Aymaia Indians of Bolivia and Peru. By David
Fobbbs, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. (With Plates XVH. to XXITI.
and Appendices.) 193
XXrV. On the opening of two Cairns near Bangor, North Wales.
By CoL A. Lanb Fox, F.S.A., Hon. Sec. (With Plate XXIV.) . . 806
XXV. On the Earliest Phases of Civilization. By Hoddbb M. Wxst-
Bopp, Esq. (Abstract.) 824
XXVI. On Current British Mythology and Oral Tradition. By J. F.
Caicfbbll, Esq., of Islay 825
XXVn. Note on a Cist with Engrayed Stones on the Poltalloch Estate,
Argyllshire. By the Rey. R. J. Maplxton. (With Woodcuts.) 840
XXVm. On the Tribal System and Land-Tenure in Ireland under the
Brehon Laws. By Hobdbb M. Wbstbopp, Esq 842
XXIX. On the Danish Element in the Population of Cleveland, York-
shire. By the Rev. J. C. Atkinson 861
XXX. On the Brain in the Study of Ethnology. By Dr. C. Donovan.
(Abstract) 809
XXXI. The Philosophy of Religion among the Lower Races of Alan-
kind. By Edwabd Bubnbtt Ttlob, Esq., Vice-President 869
XXXIL On the Ethnology of Britain. By Professor T. H. Hitzlbt,
LL.D., F.R.S., President 882
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CONTENTS. V
Page
XXXTTT. The Influence of the Nonnan Conquest on the Ethnology of
Britain. By Dr. T. Nicholas, M-A., F.G.S., &c 884
XXXIV. Note on a suppoeed Ogham Inscription, from Bus-Glass, Co.
Cork. By R Caulfibld, Esq., LL.D., F.S. A. (With Plate XXV.) 400
XXXV. Notes on the Discoveiy of Copper Celts at ButtiTant, Co. Cork.
By J. P. Phaib, Esq 402
XXXVI. On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications
of Mankind. By Professor T. H. Huxley, LL.D., F.RS., Presi-
dent (With Chromo-lithographed Map.) 404
XXX VIL On the threatened Destruction of the British Earthworks
near Dorchester, Oxfordshire. By Col. A. Lane Fox, Hon. Sec.
(With Pkte XXVI.) 412
XXXVnL Description of the Park-Cwm Tumulus. By Sir John
Lubbock, Bart, M.P., F.RS., &c., Vice-President (With Plate
XXVn.) 416
XXXIX. On the Opening of Grime's Grayes in Norfolk. By the Rev.
W. Gebenwbll, M.A., F.S.A. (With Plates XXVni. to XXX.) 419
XL. On the discoveiy of Platycnemic Men in Denbighshire. By W.
Boyd Dawkins, Esq., M.A., F.RS., and Profc Busk, r.R.S., &c.
(With Plate XXXL and Woodcuts.) 440
yiX On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades, from the Fifth to the
Nineteenth Century.— Part V. The Hungarians. By H. H. Ho-
woBTH, Esq. 469
Rbvibw: —
Mr. BoirwiCK on the Tasmanians 95
Notes and Qubbibs : —
The Veddas of Ceylon 96
Georgian and Sontal 96
"Water" in Georgian and Turkish 96
The Meneam of Livingstone 192
Turkish'* Know "and*' Sow" 192
Amazons : the Woman Question 366
Fugitives from Troy 367
Alleged connexion of Madagascar and Caffre Languages 867
Perpetuation of names of Natural Objects by Translators 367
"Khan" and "Bey" 368
The Phoenix 476
Dorchester Dykes 477, 479
IlTOKX 483
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Tl
LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS &c.
/Vofi<»mMM--<!nu^ Map of the Worlds showing the Dis-
trioution of the Chief Mooifications of Mankind^ to illustrate IVo-
fesBor Hvzlbt's Paper 404
•pi . J J QnarUite Implements from the Cape of Good Hope, to illus-
^^^ ^ 1 trate Sir QBOBaB Gbby's Paper 89
^ I "^ews and Plans of PrehistoTic Monmnents in the Channel
^ f Islands, to illustrate Lieut Gliveb'b Report 45
-^j J Ancient Calyaria from China, to Ulnstrate Professor Busk's
-^ ] Paper 78
ypf ( Stone Imnlements from New Zealan^ with Geological Map
1^^' < and Section of Locality in which they were found, to
^™- I illustrate Dr. HxAST'staper ' '. . . 110
-v-rvT ) Ohjects from the Nicobar Islands, to illustrate Mr. Atkin-
^'^^'\ soN'sNotes 187
XV. I Stone Implements from Yorkshire, and Geological Sections,
XVI. ) to illustrate Mr. Monkman's Paper 167
^^' I Aymaza Indians, and Ohjecto of Ethnological
2^2*y r trating Mr. David f obbbs's Paper . . . .
Interest, iUus-
y y III I WObUlK JUX. A/AViXr f VIJU> AO O JETapOX' 108
TTTV J ^™ ^^ Stone Lnplements from Moel Faben, North Wales,
^^^^' ] to iDustiate CoL A. Lane Fox's Paper 806
XXV. Scratched Stones, illustrating Dr. Cattlfibld's Note 400
vvvi J I^l^n and Sections of the Dorchester Dykes, to illustrate CoL
^^^^'\ Lamb Fox's Paper 412
vvvir JI^IbQ of the Park-Cwm Tumulus, to illustrate Sir John
-"^^^ ] Lubbock's Paper 416
XXVnL Plan of Grime's Graves, and Figures of Ohjects found therein
to and in the neighhourhooc^ to illustrate Canon Gbbbn-
XXX. ( wbll's Paper 419
yy^i I Skulls from Denbighshire, to illustrate Prol Busk's portion
I of the Paper on Platycnemie Men in Denbighshire .... 440
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vu
WOODCUTS.
Page
1. Stone Implement found below the Bed of a Riyer in Go. Wieklow . . 48
2. Stone from Le Oouperon Cromlech, Jexaej, originally a Side-pxopi
now the Fifth Oap-etone 61
8. Mere with straight cutting-edge resembling that of a Celt 107
4. Mere resembling Celt 107
6. Mere of Typical Form 107
6. Stone Club from Ireland resembling a Mere 107
7. Figure showing Method of using the South- Australian Celt 109
8. Mere, attributed to Ancient Peru 109
9. Bone Club from Nootka Sound 109
10. figure-group, showing costume of the Eooids 179
11. Supposed Ogham Stone from a Cist in Argyllshire 841
12. Axe-shaped markings on Stone, from a Cist in Argyllshire 841
13. Section of Perthi-Chwareu Cave, Denbighshire 441
14 Phm of Perthi-Chwareu Cave 442
15. Pkn of chambered tomb at Cefri 447
16. Transverse section of femur from Perthi-Chwareu 454
17. Transverse section of a normal tibia 458
18. Transverse section of extremely platycnemie tibia from Cro-magnon 458
19, 20, 21. Transverse sections of platycnemie tibiee from Gibraltar 458
22, 23, 24. Transverse sections of ditto fitmi Perthi-Chwareu 459
25, 26. Transvene sections of two femom from the Oefii tumulus .... 463
27. Transverse section of femur from Gibraltar 464
28. Transverse section of femur from Cefii tumulus 464
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YUl
OOBBiaElfDA ET ADDEITDA.
Pig* 196. footnote, <|^a«««nb '« It is beliered." inttrt »hj M. lyOrbignj."
w 1Mb footaoteb and p. 806, th« word Bfojo Is ao spelt aooording to the oldeet sothorilj, (5«mi
de Leon; the oorreot Qnecho* spelling ii» howeyer, Baja, as given by OsralMsa
M aaa, fi)otnote,/>r " east of Aymaras" reotf •* east of the Aymuas."
M M footnote,/>r Pisaqoa riotf Fisagoa.
« M6, line 8,ybr good reotf great
» 371, line 8,/br Tamargoal rsoif TamaragaL
,* 276, line 16,y&r Toms de Babio r^ad Torres Babio«
m 966, line 8 from bottom, fa y^^Boors read py'iasro.
• «t f» 9 » H ft AwoiM read Ihtoigiii.
„ 887,linell,ybrdahlfwulahl
„ S90,EisimlrashoaldbetraDsUted«'afarys«ai!p.''
m 888»Moll«moUeahoald be translated "viMevmm/.*'
» 9M,ybr Oooooao riotf Oooooo.
,» 90K line 8 from bottom, fa **»imaiiaee read kmanaeu.
m 806, line 16,ybrAlo6baaari£UIAlooba^.
m m H 17,/br Torres del Bnbio ffwoi Torres Bnbio.
m 888, M 16 from bottom,ybr Btnqmrold riotf Btcaparola.
M 889, « 18 « tqpb 4Ws remote.
„ 881, M 6 M bottom,ybr bard reotf herd.
« 889; M 19 w bottom»ybr Dewan ritti Dewar.
• 889; „ 11 » bottom,ybrMr8.r«»IHr.
m 982, » 10 » bottom,ybr Glendavad rscMf CHendameL
M 888, » 19 » top,/>r Camden riotf Oawdor.
M 888; M 9 » bottom,ybr Corral riotf CowaL
M 88< w 9 ^ top,ybr Corral riotf CowaL
w 886, • 13 M top,/^ Osmden retuf Cawdor.
w 88^ M 14 » topb/or brawn rioil broom.
M 8S6b » 9 M top,/>r Davan rMuf Dewar.
M 886^ » 16 „ top,/>r deolaraiion rscMf deooration.
m 887, w 16 M top,/or IkTioohe florm ritti fluioohe flonn.
» 887* M 17 » top,/or ThabhsTit riotf Thabhairt.
„ 887, M 81 M top,ybr Straparold riotf Btraparola.
• 889; ,» 11 » top,ybr aa AiMoan laogoage rscMf Afrisan langosges.
TOBBfTDEB.
Chromo-lithographed Map of the World to fam Ftontispieoe.
Plate n. to ISue p. 69.
Plate Zm. to fSMe p. 118.
ThiB other Plates may be bound as plaoed in the Knmbers.
The dip of Errata opposite p. 886 to be eaneelled.
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PROCEEDINGS
AT THS
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
OF THB
ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
Preceded by a Special Oeneral Meeting,
May 24th, 1870.
Professor T. H. Huxley, LL.D., F.B.S., President,
in the Chair.
The Honorary General Secretary read Articles 18, 19, and 20
of the Laws of the Society, in accordance with which the Special
Greneral Meeting had been convened.
It was then proposed by Mr. H. G. Bohn, seconded by Mr.
F. Hindmarsh, and carried unanimously : —
That the last clauBe of Article 10 of the Laws of the Society,
whereby ** Fellows residing permanently at a distance of not less
than twenty miles from London are entitled to the privilege of pay-
ing a subscription of only £1 Is, annually," be repealed, and that
all Members elected after the date of the present Meeting shall pay
an annual subscription of Two Guineas each.
The following Report of the Council was read by the Honorary
General Secretary : —
ANNUAL REPORT, 1870.
The Council is enabled to make a satisfactory report of the pro-
gress of the Society during the past year. The number of new
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Members shows an increase upon previous years. The follow-
ing names have been added to our list since the Anniversary
Meeting of 1869 :—
Sir Walter Elliot, K.G.8.I.
C. T. Gardner, Esq., F.E.G.8.
Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.E.S.
James Bonwick, Esq., F.B.O.S.
J. Smith, Esq.
Sir William Vernon Guise, Bart.,
F.L.S., F.G.S.
The Eev. W. A. Jones, F.G.S.
The Bev. Bichard Eirwan, M.A.
The Bev. Henry H. Winwood,
M.A., F.G.S.
Bobert D. Darbishire, Esq., B.A.
J. W. Jeffcott, Esq., M.H.K.
William Long, Esq., M.A.
M. Moggridge, Esq., F.G.S.
Dr. Gustav Oppert.
John Platts, Esq.
Major-G«n. Alex. Cunningham.
Jonas Hewitt, Es^.
The Bev. James Simpson.
Gteorge Campbell, Esq., D.C.L.
Dr. Nicholas, M.A., F.G.S.
The Earl of Dunraven and
Mountearl, K.P., F.B.S.
David Duncan, Esq., M.A.
J. F. M'Lennan, ^sq.
Henry Baylis, Esq.
John Edwards, Esq.
Lord Bosehill.
Walter Morrison, Esq., M.P.
J. W. Barnes, Esq.
B. L. Nash, Esq.
Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke,
Bart., M.P.
the Bev. A. S. Farrar, D.D.
Morton Coates Fisher, Esq.
Francis Kerridge Munton, Esq.
F. Beresford W right, Esq.
Edward Backhouse, Esq.
Capt. Walter Campbell, B.E.
B S. Newall, Esq.
E. Bonavia, Esq., M.D.
P. O'Callaghan, Esq., LL.D.,
D.C.L., F.S.A.
The Council regret to have to announce the deaths of Mr. J.
H. Backhouse and Mr. Thrupp^ Members of the Society. Four
resignations have also been received during the past year. De-
ducting deaths and resignations^ this makes an increase of 83
Members during the past year. Dr. Carl Semper^ of Wiiraburg,
has been elected an Honorary Member ; and Lieut. Oliver, B. A.,
a Corresponding Member.
The following is a list of the papers &c. which have been
communicated to the Society during the past year : —
1869.
JWM 8.
June2Si
Nov. 9.
By
On the Permanence of Type in the Human Family.
Major-G^n. Sir William Denison, E.C.B.
On CJromlechs in Nagpore. By Major Pearce, B.A.
On the Cranium and its Deformities in Belation to In-
tellect and Beauty. By Dr. B. King, F.B.C.S.
On the Proposed Exploration of Stonehenge by a Com-
mittee of the British Association. By Col. liane Fox,
Hon. Sec.
On the Chinese Bace, their Language, Government,
Social Listitutions, and Beligion. By C. T. Cbrdner,
Esq., F.B.G.S.
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XI
JVb0. 28. On Quartzite ImplementB from the Gape of Gbod Hope.
By Sir Gwrge Qrey, K.C.B.
On the Bacea and Languages of Dardiatan. By Dr.
Leitner, M.A.
Dee. 7. On a Stone Implement found beneath the Bed of a
Biver in the Co. Wicklow. By F. Adieson, Esq.
On the Stature of the North-American Indians of the
Chipewyan Tribe. By Major-G-eneral Lefroy, B.A.
Beport on the Prehistoric Bemains of the Channel Is-
lands. By Lieut. Oliver, BA.
Dee. 21. On the Meneam of Dr. Livingstone. By Hyde Clarke,
Esq.
On an Ancient Galvaria from China. By Prof. Busk,
P.B.S.
On the Eoords and Armenians. By Major Millingen,
F.B.G.S.
1870.
Jan, 11. On the Use of the Mere or Pattoo-pattoo of New Zea-
land. By Col. Lane Pox, Hon. Sec.
On the Eitai and Kara-Eitai. By Dr. Ghistav Oopert.
On some Prehistoric Bemains £com New Zeahmd. By
Dr. JuHuB Haast, P.B.S.
Jan. 26. On a Collection of Clay Models of Figures by a Native
Zulu. By Dr. Hooker, C.B., F.B.S.
On some Stone Mullers of similar form from various
Localities. By CoL Lane Fox, Hon. Sec.
On the Origin of the Tasmanians geologically considered.
By James Bonwick, Esq., F.B.&.S.
On a Frontier Line of Ethnology and ecology. By H.
H. Howorth, Esa.
On the Nicobar Islanders. By Q-. W. Atkinson, Esq.
Feb. 8. On the Discovery of Flint and Chert-flakes under a sub-
merged Forest in West Somerset. By W. Boyd Daw-
kins, Esq., M.A., F.B.S.
On a Stone Hammer from the Ancient Copper^Mines of
Buy Gomes in Portugal. By P. "W. JBudler, Esq.,
F.Q-.S., Assist. Sec.
On Prehistoric Bemains in the Neighbourhood of the
Crinan Canal, Argyllshire. By the Bev. B. J. Maple-
ton. With Introductorv Note. By Dr. A. Campbell.
Fdf. 22. On an Ancient Calvaria m)m China. By Prof. Busk,
F.B.S.
On some Prehistoric Bemains from recent deposits in
Yorkshire. By C. Monkman, Esq.
On the Natives of Naga, Island of Luzon, Philippine
Islands. By Dr. Jagor.
Mar. 7. On the Opening of Two Cairns, near Bangor, N. Wales.
By Col. Lane Fox, Hon. Sec.
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On the Earliest Phases of Civilization. Bj Hodder
Westropp, Esij.
Mar. 22. On Current British Mythology and Oral Tradition. By
J. F. Campbell, Esq., of Islay.
On a Cist with Inscribed Stones from the Neighbourhood
of the Crinan Canal. By the Bev. £. J. mpleton.
Exhibition of StoneLnplements from England and lYance.
By W. Topley, Esq., P.Q.S.
AfrU 12. On the Ancient Tribal System and Land-Tenure in Ire-
land. By Hodder Westropp, Esq.
On the Danish Element in tbe population of Cleveland
in Yorkshire. By the Eev. J. G. Atkinson.
April 26. On the Philosophy of BeHgion among the Lower Baces
of Mankind. By E. B. Tvlor, Esq.
On the Brain in the Study of Ethnology. By Dr.
Donovan.
M(w 10. Address on the Ethnology of Britain. By Prof. Huxley,
LL.D., P.E.S., President.
On the Influence of the Norman Conquest on the Eth-
nology of Britain. By Dr. T. Nicholas, MiA.
By a division of the subjects into sections as arranged in the
report of last year^ the follovnng shows the number appertaining
to each section, viz. : —
General Ethnology 7
Biology 4
Comparative Psychology 1
Sociology 12
Archaeology 18
Philology 1
Reports on the megalithic monuments of the Channel Islands
and of Argyllshire have been received ; others are in course of
preparation^ and will be communicated to the Society during
the present year.
In conformity with the arrangements made at the last Anni-
versary Meeting, extra sectional meetings have been appointed
for the reading of papers relating to Prehistoric Archaeology, on
which subject a large number of valuable papers have been com-
municated to the Society during the past year.
Considerable success has attended the publication of the
Quarterly Journal. All the copies of the torsi number which
were printed (with the exception of a few copies which have
been reserved for Members) have now been sold, as also the
whole of the copies of the first volume of the new series in
which this number was included. The Council propose, when
the funds enable them to do so, to reprint the first number, and
thus to continue the circulation of tbe volume. Meanwhile a
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XIU
few copies of the first number have been retained for future
Members^ who will thus be enabled to complete their series. Lit-
tle or nothing has been done as yet in the way of advertise-
ments ; butj judging from the sale already effected, there appears
to be no reason for doubt that it will obtain a wide circulation
when the character of the work becomes better known.
Following the precedent of last year^ special meetings have
been appointed for discussion of subjects calculated to interest
the public. One of these, held in the Theatre of the Museum
of Practical Geology, by permission of Sir R. I. Murchison,
Bart., the Director-General, of the Geological Survey of Great
Britain and Ireland, has been largely attended ; one other is to
be held in the same place, and two in the Theatre of the Royal
United Service Institution, by permission of the Council of the
Institution. Cards of invitation to these meetings have been
printed for the use of Members.
The accounts of the Society are presented as usual, and show
a balance of j£120 5^. 4rf. in the hands of the bankers on the
16th inst.
The attention of the Members is earnestly directed to the
advisability of increasing the number of new Members. The
Council have already been enabled to make considerable addition
to the number of maps, lithographs, and woodcuts in the new
series of the Journal ; but the majority of the papers offered to
the Society are upon subjects requiring illustration, and they
hope by enlarged funds to be able to meet this requirement on
an extended scale in the future numbers of the Journal.
After this Report was read, the Honorary Treasurer submitted
his account (p. xv).
It was then proposed by Mr. Hyde Clarke, seconded by Mr.
J. W. Flower, and carried unanimously : —
That the Report of the Council and the Treasurer's Account be
adopted.
The President observed that, in conformity with the Laws of
the Ethnological Society, the property of the Society should be
vested in three Trustees, of whom the Treasurer is one ; but it
appeared that on the decease of the original Trustees no suc-
cessors had been appointed.
It was then proposed by Col. A. Lane Fox, seconded by Mr.
J. Heywood, and carried unanimously : —
That Sir John Lubbock, Bart., and Mr. W. Spottiswoode, be elected
Trustees of the Ethnological Society of London, to act with the
Honorary Treasurer.
After the President had delivered the Anniversary Address,
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XIV
(see p. xvi), it was resolved^ on the motion of Dr. B. King,
seconded by Col. A. Lane Fox, that the thanks of the Society be
accorded to the President for Ms Address, and that it be printed.
The following resolution was then proposed by Mr. J. Hey-
wood| seconded by Mr. H. O. Bohn, and carried unanimously —
That the Pellows present hereby express their conciirrence in the
sentiments of the President's Address, and their continued desire to
promote an amalgamation between the Ethnological and Anthropo-
logical Societies.
Mr. J. Heywood and Mr. T. M^K. Hughes were appointed
scrutineers of the ballot for Officers and Council for the following
Session, and a vote of thanks was accorded to the six retiring
Councillors.
The ballot having been open one hour, the report of the
scrutineers was read, and the following gentlemen were declared
duly elected as Officers and Council of the Ethnological Society
of London for the Session 1870-71 : —
Officers.
Fresident—VTofe&BOT T. H. Huxley, LL.D., P.B.S.
Fice-Presidenfs—Archihdld Campbell, Esq., M.D., F.L.S. ; Sir John
Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.E.8. ; Edward Burnett Tylor, Esq. ; Thos.
Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.
Honorary Treasurer.— H. Gt. Bohn, Esq., P.E.G.S., F.R.8.L.
Honorary General Secretary, — Col. A. Lane Fox, F.Q-.S., F.S.A.
Honorary Foreign Secretary.'^'Rjde Clarke, Esq., Ac
Council.
William Blackmore, Esq. ; Professor Q-. Busk, Esq., F.E.8. ; Gteorge
Campbell, Esq., D.C.L. ; J. Barnard Davis, Esq., M.D., M.RC.8.,
F.E.S. ; W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq., M.A., F.E.S., F.G.S. ; John Dick-
inson, Esq. ; Eobert Dunn, Esq., F.E.C.S. ; J. W. Flower, Esq., F.G.S,
David Forbes, Esq., F.E.S., F.G.S., F.C.S.; A. W. Franks, Esq.
M.A., D.S.A. ; Eev. Canon Greenwell, M. A., F.S.A. ; A. Hamilton
Esq. ; F. Hindmarsh, Esq., F.E.G.S., F.G.S. ; T. M*K. Hugbes, Esq.!
M.A., F.G.S., F.S.A. ; Eichard King, Esq., M.D., F.E.C.S. ; J. F,
M'Lennan, Esq. ; Sir Eoderick Impey Murchison, Bart., K.C.B.
F.E.S.; Eev. Dr. Nicholas, M.A., F.G.S.; S. E. B. Pusey, Esq
F.E.G.S.
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XVI
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS.
By Professor T. H. Huxlby, LL.D., F.R.S., President.
When, on the lamented death of the late Mr. Crawford in the
spring of 1868, the Chair of this Society became vacant, I
attended the Meeting of the Coimcil upon which it devolved to
elect Mr. Crawford's successor, for the purpose of asking to be
relieved of my duties as Councillor, on the ground that other
occupations rendered it very difficult for me to discharge those
duties in the manner in which I considered they ought to be
discharged.
The Council, however, did me the honour to request me to
accept the Presidency of the Society; and they urged their
wishes with so much unanimity, that I did not feel at liberty to
persist in declining it. But I ventured to make one condition,
and this was that the Coimcil should heartily agree to, and assist
in, an endeavour to bring about an amalgamation between the
Ethnological and the Anthropological Societies, and thereby put
an end to a state of affairs which, in my judgment, was not
creditable to the Members of either Society.
The Council readily agreed to this condition, and I was nomi-
nated President. The day after, while I was yet considering in
what way best to commence the negotiations with the Anthro-
pological Society, the late Dr. Hunt, at that time President of the
Anthropological Society, called upon me ; and (being evidently
fully informed of what had taken place in our Council) expressed
his readiness to cooperate in bringing about the union of the
two Societies. In the course of our conversation. Dr. Hunt
informed me that Dr. King proposed to take some steps in this
direction at the Anniversary Meeting on the 26th of May.
However, nothing was done, and Dr. Hunt commences the fol-
lowing letter, which I received from him three days afterwards,
by an allusion to this circumstance : —
Ore HouBe, near HastingB,
May 28, 1866.
Mt dkab Sib, — Dr. B. King writes to inform me that, after con-
sulting with his friends in the Ethnological Sode^, it was thought
best not to make any proposal at the Aieeting on Tuesday. It was
thought best that such a resolution should come from the Council. On
the whole there is no reason to regret this ; but, after our conversation
last week, I have thought it my duty to write to inform you why the
subject was not brought before the Society, as I believed (when I
had the pleasure of seeing you) would have been done.
Col. Lane Fox writes to me, to say that he has suggested to you
the desirability of having a department for " Prehistoric arch£K>logy,"
as he translates '* Palfo-anthrapolo^,** With reference to tnis
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Presidents Address. xvii
suggestion, I may mention tbat last year I prepared a scbeme for a
union of the two Societies on such a basis.
This question is, howoTer, worth discussing, and I think at some
future time such a scheme might be worthy of full consideration.
On the whole, however, I do not think such a scheme is at present
either practicable or desirable. I think it is a great pity to separate
the different branches of the same science. The Gheologiod Society
is an instance of the good effect of the union of different benches of
one large science.
I shim be in London on Tuesday next, and if you would ere then
consult with your iriends, I shall be ready to call on yon at 12 o'clocK
on that day. If there is any chance of a union being effected, I can
then bring the subject before our Council the same afternoon. I
mention this because I go Away for m^ vacation the end of June. I
think that if a union can be effected, it should be decided on before
the meeting of the Association at Norwich, in August. If this is to
be done, the subject must be discussed at once. We usually print
our cards for each year's meeting in July, and this is another rea-
son why action should be taken in the matter at once, or the whole
subject left over until the beginning of the next Session or next year.
I have been trying to effect this union for the last five or six years,
and as I firmly believe that the longer it is delayed the better will it
be for my own wishes, I shall not raise any objections to a delay in
this matter.
Both Societies will soon have to give up their rooms at 4 St. Mar-
tin's Place, and we each have to give six months' notice. We may
have to leave at three months' notice; but we have to give six if we wish
to leave.
I think, therefore, that, on the whole, it will be desirable if we
can meet and see if we can agree on terms.
Our original rules wene based on those Cf the Geological Society.
We changed this for those of the Society of Antiquaries and Asiatic
Society.
These details might be settled by a special committee.
It will, however, be advisable, if possible, that the general scheme
should be settled before the subject is brought before the Councils.
Each Society can then nominate a committee to ofScially negotiate
terms of union on the basis proposed.
I shall be glad to have a line from you as soon as convenient, and
I shall then know what my plans for Tuesday next will be.
Believe me.
Tours very faithfully,
Professor Huxley, F.RS., Jamxb Huht.
President of the Ethnological Society,
My reply to Dr. Hunt^s letter was as follows : —
Jermvn Street,
May 29, 1868.
My dsab Sib, — I quite agree with yon that whatever is done in tho
way of fusing, or attempting to fuse, our two Societies into one should
b
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xviii Presidenfs Address.
be done ^uicklj. There is not much time between now and Tues-
daj ; but if you will, as you propose, do me the favour to call here at
noon on that day, on the chance of my having been able to get things
into some sort of shape, I shall be very happy to see you.
The Ethnological Council meet on the 9th of June, and it would
be very convenient for me to be in a position to put before them
some scheme of union which I could be sure would have the assent
of your Society.
Your very faithfully,
Br. Hunt, T. H. HuxLBf.
President of the Anthropological Society of London,
To this letter Dr. Hunt rejoined : —
Ore House, near Hastings,
May 80, 1868.
Mt dsab Sib, — In reply to your letter of yesterday's date, I have
pnt on paper a few proposals which, if they receive your assent, I
will undertake to submit to a meeting of the Council of the Anthro-
pological Society on Tuesday.
In reference to proposal No. Y., I had better explain that we
cannot at present say how our finances will stand at the end of the
year. Our de&ulters' list amounts to far more than our debts, and
we have a stock of translations. K these books are suddenly thrown
on the market, we shall get little for them, and there may be a loss
— hence the insertion of tnis proposal.
I am alone responsible for these proposals. In drawing them up
I have only been guided by a desire to suggest what is practicable.
I shall myself enter into negotiations for the union solely anxious
to make the best and most useful Society we can. I do not think
that there are jtwo interests in such a matter.
Kyou think it advisable to propose that the future Council shall
consist of an equal number of each existing councils, or to suggest
any other proposals based on scientific considerations, I shall be very
glad to discustf the same.
Believe me,
Tours very faithfully,
Professor Huxley^ F.E,S. James Hukt.
Dr. Hunt's Proposals,
Preliminary Terms of Union^ which have received the sanction
of the Presidents of the Ethnological and Anthropological
Societies, and submitted by them to their respective
Councils.
I. That it is highly desirable, in the interest of science, that the
Ethnological and Anthropological Societies should be
united.
II. That, with a view to effect such union, a Committee of six
(three) Members of each Council be nominated to
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Prerident^s Address. xix
draw up terms of union and regulations^ and nominate
Officers and Council.
III. That on receipt of such terms of union and regulations,
by the respective Presidents of the two Societies, a
General Meeting of each Society shall be called within
fourteen days to consider the same.
IV. That, with a view of fSeusilitating the proposed amalgamation,
and of removing obstacles from its accomplishment,
the Committee be instructed to base the rules of the
United Society, as far as possible, on those of the
Ethnological Society ; while the name of the United
Society be assimilated to that of (adopt the name of)
the Anthropological Society, unless a better can be
found.
V. That a sum, not exceeding one-third of the annual income
derived /rom present Fellows of either Society, shall
be put aside to defiray any debts that may exist in such
Society.
YI. That when the terms of Union agreed on by the joint
Committee have been accepted by a General
Meeting of each Society, a Meeting of the
Councils of the existing Societies be called to
NOMINATE Officers and Council for the United
Society, and to fix a day for a General Meeting
OF the Fellows of both Societies.
YII. That such (a) General Meeting {of each Society) shall
CONSIDER AND DECIDE ON THE ORGANISATION AND NAME
OF THE United Society [be called for the purpose of
accepting the terms of union agreed upon by the before^
named Committee) .
VIII. That Professor Huxley be President of the Amalga-
mated Society, and do preside at such Meeting,
AND THE Officers nominated conduct the business
OF the same.
IX. That the Councils of the respective Societies undertake to use
their best efforts to carry out the recommendations of
the Committee,
The document submitted to me by Dr. Hunt is here printed
SO as to show what alterations took place in it during a long
conference which Dr. Hunt had with me in Jermyn Street.
What remained unaltered is in ordinary type; what was struck
out is in capitals; and such additions as were made by myself,
and stand in my handwriting, are in italics.
It will be observed that at the end of the fourth propo-
sition Dr. Hunt's words ran as follows : —
bi
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
XX President's Address,
" WhUe the name of tlie United Society be assimilated to that
of the Anthropological Society/'
It is clear that I might have accepted this proposition as it
stood^ without in any way committing myself to the acceptance
of the name *' Anthropological '' for the united Societies.
Strictly construed^ in fact, the word "assimilated'* excludes the
notion of the acceptance of the very name itself.
But seeing the ambiguity of the phrase, I told Dr. Hunt, in
the plainest and most distinct manner, that whatever my per-
sonal opinions might be, I was sure that any proposition, even
to " assimilate*' the name of the conjoined Societies to that of
the Anthropological Society, would probably meet with a nega-
tive firom the Ethnological Council ; and that, in fact, I could
not go to the Ethnological Council with a proposition so
worded.
We nearly came to a dead lock upon this point; and the
difSculty was only got over by Dr. Hunt's acceptance of my
suggestion, to add the words " unless a better can be found."
1 fiilly explained to Dr. Hunt why I chose this form of words.
I imagined (and I must confess I still imagine) that reasonable
men upon both sides would see that ''the best name which
could be found" would be one which would enable the Societies
to unite ; and that any name which should be an obstacle to
that union would* be ipso facto not ''the best name which could
be found."
Dr. Hunt was perfectly well aware that these words were
added on no other ground than the strong objection entertained
by Members of the Council of the Ethnological Society to the
adoption of the name of the Anthropologic^ Society.
A Meeting of the Council of the Ethnological Society was
held on the 9th of June, having been summoned as soon as I
knew that the propositions, as amended, had been agreed to by
the Council of the Anthropological Society.
It will be observed that the propositions are silent respecting
any confirmation of the acts of the delegates by the respective
Councils. Both Dr. Hunt and I agreed that it would be better
that the Councils should give their delegates full powers ; but it
was obviously impossible that either he, or I, should do more
than attempt to bring this about.
In my case, the Council required the delegates to report and
receive confirmation of their acts, while the Anthropological
Council gave its delegates full powers.
Under these circumstances, I felt bound to put our position
clearly before Dr. Hunt, before the meeting of the delegates took
Slace. I did so in the following letter, dated the 10th (not 11 th)
une, 1868, in order that Dr. Hunt might judge for himself how
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President's Address. xxi
far the understanding between us had been kept; and that if he
were dissatisfied^ he might say so.
Jermyn Street,
June 10th, 1868.
My dxab Sib, — ^I had no time to write to you yesterday after the
meeting of the Council of the Ethnological Society, but 1 gave Mr.
Collingwood a copy of the Besolution which the Council passed, the
names of the Committee-men appointed, and the day and hour of
meeting, viz., to-morrow (Thursday, llth of June) at 4 p.m.
After a very long discussion the Council (which was a very full
one) determined on accepting the principle of the terms which you
and I had discussed. But the Committee appointed to confer with
yours was requested to report to the Council oefore finally pledging
the Council to any particular line of action.
I think the Council were mainly led to take this course (in the
advisableness of which, after all that was stated, I fully agree) by
certain facts which were brought forward tending to show that the
Anthropological Society is in a very unsatisfactory financial con-
dition ; and unless your Committee come to the meeting fully pre-
pared to satisfy ours upon this point, I am afraid the prospects of
amalgamation are not very bright.
I am, yours very faithfully,
T. H. HUXLKX.
Dr. Runt,
President of the Anthropologieal Society,
When the delegates met on the llth of June^ Dr. Hunt re-
ferred to the contents of my letter^ but he did not make the change
any ground of objection to the opening of the negotiations,
which accordingly proceeded. By this course^ Dr. Hunt barred
himself from raising any objection on that score afterwards.
There is no allusion in my letter to the question of name^ the
obvious reason being that the propositions which I had read to
the Ethnological Council, and which had received their general
approval, left the question of name entirely open.
But so far from there being ** no anticipation of the slightest
objection to the word Anthropology/' as has been asserted, I
appeal to every one of the delegates to say whether this was not
felt to be the great and prominent difficulty, — ^a difficulty so
great that it was referred to Dr. Hunt and myself to deal with
at a separate interview on the following day. Dr. Hunt, in fact,
spent somewhat more than two hours with me on the 12th of
June, in discussing this knotty question ; and, at length, he himself
•^gested *' The Society for the Promotion of the Science of
Man,'' as the title of the new Society. I accepted the name at
once ; and that there should be no mistake, wrote it down and
asked Dr. Hunt to put his signature to the paper. The paper
so signed lies before me.
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xxii Preaidenfa Address.
I then^ at Dr. Hant's request^ accompauied him to see Mr.
Braybrook^ who at once assented to the proposed name.
The Council of the Ethnological Society met on the 15th of
June.
After the Meeting I wrote to Dr. Hunt as follows : —
26 Abbey Place, N.W.,
June 15th, 1868.
Mt deab Sib, — ^I am glad to be able to inform you that, at the
meeting of the Council of the Ethnological Society to-day, Major-
General Balfour, Mr. Hyde Clarke, and myself were fmmished with
full powers to arran^ the terms of union of the Ethnological and
Anthropological Societies, and to organize the resulting new Society
under tne title of " The Society for the Promotion of tne Science of
Man."
We have arranged with Mr. Braybrook to meet your Committee at
five o'clock to-morrow afternoon, m order to arriye at a final settle-
ment with respect to sundry points which still reaaire discussion.
I am, yours very faithfully.
Dr. Hunt, T. H. Huxlit.
President of the Anthropological Soeieiy.
It will be obvious^ from the tone of this letter, that I imagined
the business was practicalljr settled, the '^ sundry points which
still require discussion'^ being matters of detail about which I
was sure that our side would make no difficulty.
But when our meeting took place, the delegates of the Anthro-
pological Society placed in our hands a resolution just passed by
the Council, wluch rejected the one stipulation upon which the
delegates of both sides had absolutely agreed.
The Council of the Anthropological Society had, undoubtedly,
a l^al right to act in this manner; but that it did thus, with-
out any provocation on our part, break off a treaty which we
considered to be virtually concluded^ is clear ; and that it dis-
avowed the acts of its delegates is perfectly obvious from the
fact that Dr. Hunt and Mr. Braybrook thought right to resign
their offices.
Considering the circumstances under which the negotiations
were broken off by the Council of the Anthropological Society,
the CouncU of the Ethnological Society could hardly take the
initiative in any further movement towards amalgamation, though
they have always expressed the utmost readiness to re-open iSie
negotiations. However, when Dr. Beddoe, the present Presi«
dent of the Anthropological Society was elected, J thought the
oppOTtunity a good one for bringing the state of affairs privately
under his notice, and I therefore took the liberty of addressing
the following letter to Dr. Beddoe: —
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President's Address. xxiii
Jttnuvn Streoty
May 18th, 1869.
DsAB Sib, — ^I hare not the good fortune to be penonallj known
to 70U, but, as President of the Ethnological Society, I take the
liberty of addressing you, as President of the Anthropological
Society.
It must be obyious to every one that the existence of two Societies
haying identical objects is a waste of power ; and when I became
President of the IJthnological Society, it was on the clear under-
standing that the Council of that Society would heartily cooperate
with me in endeavourii^ to bring about an amalgamation of the two
Societies. The Council fully acted up to this understanding. As
you are doubtless aware, delegates were appointed on the part of
both Societies, and these delegates agreed upon terms of union. But
the treaty was virtually repumated by the Council of the Anthropo-
logical Society.
Without presuming to challenge the right of the Council of the
Antluropological Society to take this step, I very much regretted it,
for two reasons, — ^the first, that it put an end to an arrangement
which, I think, would have worked very well ; the second, that it pre-
cluded any further advances on the part of the Ethnological Society.
Thrown back upon its own resources, the Ethnologic^ Society has
passed through a session which, I think I may venture to sa^, shows
that it is in full health and vigour, and quite capable of taking care
of itself ; but this gratifying fact, so far from leading me to wish to
perpetuate the present state of affairs, rather causes me to lament
more than ever the division of energies which would gain so much
by combination, and strengthens my desire for a speedv union of
tbe two Societies. I expressed these views in a brief address which
I delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Ethnological Society on
TuesdajT last ; and, as the Anniversary Meeting of the Anthropologi-
cal Society is at hand, and will take place before my address can be
published, I write to inform you that I have done so, and to express
the hope that you will see nt to exercise your own influence in the
aame direction.
Honourable as I feel the position to be, the Presidency of a Society
is one which makes such inroads upon the time of its holder that, as
soon as union is effected, my great desire will be to withdraw from
office, and to see the Chair of 3ie new Society occupied by some one
who can devote to its duties the time and the attention they
deserve.
I hope, therefore, that it is quite clear that I have no personal
interest to serve in advocating amalgamation.
I am, yours very faithfuUy,
T. H. HirxLKr.
Dr, Beddae,
President of the Anthropological Society.
I received a courteous reply from Dr, Beddoe^ expressive of
general good-will ; but I am not aware that any other result has
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
xxiv President's Address,
followed my commimication. On our side we are ready and
willing^, as we always have been^ to discuss terms of union.
So much for an earnest but fruitless endeavour to bring about
an amalgamation directly with the Anthropological Society. But
it may be worthy of consideration whether it is wise thus to
limit our efforts. The Anthropological Society is only one of
several Societies^ the spheres of activity of which all more or less
coincide with those of the Ethnologiod Society. For example^
I need only name the Society of Antiquaries^ the Archaeological
Institute^ the Archaeological Association^ and the Geographical
Society. The loss of time^ money, and energy involved in the
absence of any cooperation or harmonious action among these
Societies in respect of the ground common to all of them is
' very lamentable, and I should be very glad to see something
done to prevent the occurrence of this waste in future.
I am glad to be able to inform you that, in accordance with
the practice which has now prevailed for some years, ample pro-
vision has been made for the fiill representation of Ethnological
and Anthropological science at the meeting of the British Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, at Liverpool, in Sep-
tember next ; and I trust that the Department of Section D,
which will meet under the Presidency of Mr. J. Evans, F.R.S.,
will be well supplied with papers.
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rORTHB
STUDY OP THE HUMAN RACE IN ALL ITS VAMETIBS. AND IN
ALL THE PHASES OF ITS HIST0B7 AND PBOGBESS.
4 ST. MARTIN'S PLACE, CHARING CROSS.
OFFICERS AND COXTNCIL FOB 1870-71.
PROFESSOR T. H. HUXLEY. LL.D., P.R,S.. etc.
ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, Ebq., M.D.
SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.
B. BURNETT TYLOR, Esq.
THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., MA., P.S.A
fion. Creatlurfr.
HENRY G. BOHN, Esq., F.R.G.S., F.R.S.L., F.RA.S., btc.
)^on. (Knural Secretary.
COL. A. LANE FOX, F.SJL
)^on. dToreign Sttretarp.
HYDE CLARKE, Esq.
P. W. RUDLER, Esq., F.G.S.
GEORGE A STRETTON, Esq.
Council.
W. BLACKMORE. Esq.
PROFESSOR G. BUSK, RRS.
G. CAMPBELL, Esq., D.C.L.
J. BARNARD DAVIS, Esq., M.D., P.R.8.
W. BOYD DAWEINS, Esq., M.A, F.R.S., F.G.S.
JOHN DICKINSON, Esq., F.G.S.
ROBERT DUNN, Esq., F.R.C.S.
J. W. FLOWER, Esq., F.G.S.
DAVID FORBES, Esq, P.R.S., F.G.S.
A. W. FRANKS, Esq.. D.SA.
REV. CANON GREENWELL. M.A, F.S.A
A HAMILTON, Esq.
F. HINDMARSH, Esq., P.G.S., F.R.G.S.
T. M^K. HUGHES, Esq., M.A, F.G.S., F.S.A
RICHARD KING, Esq., M.D., F.RC.S.
J. F. M'LENNAN, Esq.
SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON. Bart., K.C.B., F.R.S.
DR. NICHOLAS, MA., F.G.S.
S. E. B. PUSEY. Esq., F.RG.S.
c
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LIST or FELLOWS
THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
Members who have paid a Composition in lieu of Stihscriptions are indi-
cated by an asterisk (♦) prefixed to their names.
Members who have contributed Papers which have appeared in the Society^ s
Publications are distinguished by a dagger (f) prefixed to their names.
Date of
Election.
1858.*Adams, William, Esq. 5 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square.
1864. Aitken, Alexander Muirhead, Esq. Calcutta.
1862. Alcock, His ExoeUency Sir Rutherford, K.C.B., H.M. Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, China.
1862. Amhurst, W. A. Tyssen, Esq., F.R.S.L. DidUngton, Brandon,
Norfolk.
1870. Antrim, the Earl of. Christchurch, Oaford.
1865.»Arm8trong, Sir William, Bart, K.C.B., F.R.8. The Athenceum
Club, Pall Mall.
1853.»Arthur, Rev. William. Methodist College, Belfast.
1863. Ashnrst, W. H., Esq., SoHcitor to the General Poet Office.
7 Prince of Wales Terrace, Kensington Palace.
1870. Backhouse, Edward, Esq. Ashhum, near Sunderland.
1865. Bagehot, Walter, Esq. 12 Upper Belgrave Street, Eaton Square.
1861.»Baker, John, Esq.
1866.tBaker, Pasha Sir Samuel. ffeadingJiam Hall, Bungay.
1865. Balfour, Major-General Sir George, C.B. Athenceum Club.
1870. Barnes, J. W., Esq. Market Place, Durham.
1866. Bartrum, John Stothart, Esq., F.R.C.S. 41 Oay Street, Bath.
1870. Baylis, T. Henry, Esq. 3 The Terrace, Kensington Gardens
Square, W.
1854.tBeddoe, J., Esq., M.D. 2 Lansdowne Place, Clifton.
1869.tBell, WiUiam A., Esq., M.D. Care of Dr. Bird, 18 Hertford
Street, Mayfair.
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Dttte of
Bleotioo.
1866 .♦fBlackmore, Wm., Esq. Founders Court, Lothbury, E.G.
1861. Bohn, Henry G., Esq., F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S., F.R.S.L. Treasttbbb.
Henrietta Street, Oovent Garden, W.C.
1870. Bonavia, E., Esq., M.D. 9 Northunck Terrace, Maida BUI, W.
1869.tBonwick, James, Esq., F.K.G.8. 13 Alfred Eoad, Acton.
1844»Bracebridge, Charles Holt, Esq. Aihenceum Cltd), 8.W.
1866. Braddell, Hon. Thomas, H.B.M. Attorney-General, Singapore.
1870. Bragge, William, Esq., F.R.G.8., F.S.A. SJdrU HiU, Sheffield.
1845.*Brigg8, Lieut.-General John. Oriental and Athenamm Clubs.
1869.tBrino, Capt. lindsay, R.N. All Saints Rectory, Axminster.
1868. Brookes, Henry, Esq. 12 De Beauvoir Square.
1861. Burke, Lnke, Esq. 5 Albert Terrace, Acton.
1861.tBarton, Capt. Ridiard Francis, H.B.M. Consul, Damascus. Care
of Foreign Office.
1863.tBnsk, George, Esq., F.R.B. Athenceum dub; and ^2 Barley
Strut.
1866.tCampbell, Archibald, Esq., M.D. Viob-Presidknt. 104 Lans-
downs Eoad, Kensington Park, NoUing Bill.
1869.fCampbell, George, Esq., D.C.L., lieutenant-Goyernor of Bengal.
1870. Campbell, Capt. Walter, R.E. Neweastle-upon-Tyne.
1845.»Camps, William, Esq., M.D. The Hall, Wilburton, Ely.
1870. Camao, H. Bivett, Esq. Simlah, India.
1866. Carpenter, Frederick Stanley, Esq., D.C.G. CareofMrs.Trygam
Griffith, Carreglwyd, Bolyhead.
1869. Chambers, C. Harcourt, Esq. 2 Chesham Place. S.W.
1855. Charlton, William, Esq. Besleyside, BeUingham, Bexham.
1844.»Child, W. D., Esq. 8 Hnsbury Place South. E.C.
1868. Cholmondeley, Colonel the Hon. T. J. Abbots Moss, J^orthwich,
Cheshire.
1867.fClarke, Hyde, Esq. Fobeion Sbcbbtabt. 32 St. Oeorge^s Square,
Pimlico. S.W.
1861. Clavering, Sir William Aloysins, Bart. AthtMeum Club. S.W.
1860. Colebrook, Sir Thomas Edward, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., F.R.A.S.
57 South Street, Park Lane.
1854.*Coleman, J. Sherrard, Esq.
1862 .♦Collins, W. W., Esq. 2 Bereford Square, Old Brompton.
1867. Colonsay, Right Hon. Lord. New Club, Edinburgh.
1861. Copeland, George Ford, Esq., M.R.C.S. Bays Bill, Cheltenham.
1845.*Comthwaite, Rey. Tullie. Walihamstow, Essex.
1861.*Crawfurd, Oswald J., Esq., H.B.M. Consul, Oporto; and Foreign
Office.
1857. Croker, T. F. Dillon, Esq., F.S.A. 9 PeUiam Place, Brompton.
S.W.
1845.*tCull, R., Esq., F.S.A. 13 Tatristock Street, Bedford Square.
1855. Cunliff, R., Esq. 21 Carlton Place, Glasgow.
1869. Cunningham, Major-General Alexander. Care of Messrs. Henry
8. King & Co., 65 ComhiU. E.C.
1860.*Cutler, G., Esq., F.R.S.L. Nelson lerrace, Sheffield.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
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Date of
Blection.
1858 .♦tDanieU, G. Wythes, Esq., M.D. 38 Bmb^n-ough Street, Pindico.
S.W.
1869. Darbishire, Robert D., Esq., B.A., F.G.S. 26 George Street,
Manchester.
1856.tDavis, J. Barnard, Esq., M.D., F.R.C.8., F.R.S. Shdton, Staf-
fordshire.
1868. Daw, George H., Esq. ChisUhurst, Kent.
1869.tDawkiiis, W. Boyd, Esq., M.A., F.E.S., F.G.S. Birch View,
Norman Road, Rusholme, Manchester.
1850. De Grey and Bipon, Bight Hon. Earl. 1 Carlton Gardens.
1853. Des Ruffi^res, C. Robert, Esq., F.G.S. WUmot Lodge, Rochester
Road, Camden Town, N.W.
1862.^Deyonshire, His Grace the Dnke of, E.G., F.R.S. Devonshire
House, Piccadilly.
1861. Dickinson, John, Esq., F.G.S. Athenceum Clvh.
1870. Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth, Bart., M.P. 76 Shane Street. S.W.
1870. Duncan, Professor David, M.A. Presidency College, Madras.
1869. Duncan, Professor P. M., M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 40 BUssington
Road, Lee, Kent.
1868. Dunkin, A. J., Esq. 44 Besshorough Gardens, S.W. ; and DaH-
ford, Kent.
1845.*tl>unn, Robert, Esq., F.R.C.S. 39 Norfolk Street, Strand. W.C.
1870. Dunrayen and Mountearl, the Earl of, £.P., F.R.S., &c. 5 Buck-
ingham Palace Gate, PtnUico. S.W.
1862. Eastwood, J. W., Esq., M.D. BinsdaU Park, Darlington.
1870. Edwards, John, Esq. 1 Hare Court, Temple. E.G.
1869.tElliot, Sir Walter, K.C.S.I. Wolfeelee Hawick, NB.
1863. Erie, Right Hon. Sir William. 12 Princes Gardens, Hyde Park.
1866. Euing, William, Esq. 209 West George Street, and Royal Ex-
change, Glasgow.
1861.tEvans, John, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.8., F.S.A. Nash Mills, Hemd
Hempstead,
1863. Fairbaim, Sir W., Bart., F.R.S. Manchester.
1870. Farrar, Rev. A. S., D.D. The College, Durham.
1861.tFarrar, Rev. F. W., M.A., F.R.8., Assistant Classical Master at
Harrow. The Park, Harrow-on-tTie-HiU.
1870.tFi8her, Morton Coates, Esq. 58 Threadnedle Street. E.C.
1868. Fitzwilliam, W. S., Esq., F.S.S., late Member of the Supreme
Legislative Council of India. 28 Ovington Square.
1869. Flower, J. W., Esq., F.G.S. Park HiU, Croydon.
1869.*tForbes, David, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. 11 York Place, Portman
Square, W.
1851.*Fowler, R. N., Esq., M.P. 30 Comhill. E.C.
1861. Fox, Charles Henry, Esq., M.D. The Beeches, Brislington,
Bristol.
1861.tFox, Colonel A. Lane, F.S.A., F.G.S. Gbkekal Secbetakt.
10 Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington. W.
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Bate of
BleotioD.
IS^.^Franks, Augufltua W., Esq.» Director of the Sodety of Anti-
quaries. Hie British Museum; and 103 Victoria Street^
Westminster, 8.W.
1865. Eraser, Captain Thomas. Olago^ New Zealand. Care of J.
Fraser McQueen, Esq., 8 (M Square, Lineoln*s Inn.
1866.tFytche, Major-General Albert, Chief Commissioner at Martaban.
1861.»Galton, Captain Douglas, F.R.8. 12 CfTiester Street, Orosvenor
Place.
1862.tGalton, Francis, Esq., F.R.G.S. 42 Rutland OaU, Hyde Park;
and AihenoBum Club, Pall MaU,
1869.tGardner, C. T., Esq., F.R.G.S. 3 St Jamais Terrace, Pad-
dingUm ; and Shanghai.
1861. Gardner, E. V., Esq. Sunhwry, Middlesex.
1846.*Gardner, Peter, Esq. 41 Inverness Terrace, Bayswater. W.
1862. Gassiot, J. P., Esq., F.R.S. Clapham Common. 8.
1865.»Gille8pie, William, Esq. Tarhane HiU, Edinburgh.
1860. Gore, Richard Thomas, Esq. 6 Queen Square, Bath.
1868.tGreenwell, Rev. William, M.A., F.8.A., Canon of Durham.
1865. Greg, W. R., Esq., Superintendent of H.M. Stationery Office.
Princes Street, Westmimter. 8.W.
1861. Grey, Lieut. Henry, R.E., R.N., HM.S. *AJgerineJ
1860.»tGrey, Right Hon. Sir George. Aihencswn Club.
1869. Guise, Sir William Vernon, Bart., F.G.S., F.L.S. Elmore Court,
Gloucester.
1862. Guthrie, James, Esq. 3 Pognder's Boad, Clapham Park.
1869. Hamilton, Captain Alexander, R.E. Bermuda.
1863.*Hamilton, Archibald, Esq. Southboraugh, Bromley, Kent.
1853. Hamilton, Rowland, Esq. Calcutta; and 32 New Broad Street.
1869. Harrison, Charles, Esq. 10 Lancaster QaU, Hyde Park.
1863. Harvey, John, Esq., Borneo Company. 7 Mincing Lan€.
1863. Henderson, Robert, Esq. RandaWs Park, Surrey.
1855. Hepburn, Robert, Esq. 70 Portland Place. W.
1869. Hewitt, Jonas, Esq. Crown Court, Threadneedle Street. E.C.
1844.*Heywood, James, Esq., F.R.S. 26 Kensington Palace Gardens;
and AthenoBum Club, Pall MaU.
1845.*Hindmar8h, Frederick, Esq., F.G.8., F.R.G.8. 4 New Inn,
Strand; and Townsend House, Barkway, Herts.
1863. Hodgson, Kirkman Daniel, Esq., M.P. 37 Brook Street, Qros-
venor Square ; and Sparrows Heme, Bushy, Herts.
1868.tHooker, Joseph, Esq., C.B., M.D., F.R.S., Director of the Royal
Gardens, Kew.
1867. Hotten, John Camden, Esq. 174 Piccadilly.
1856.tHoworth, H. H., Esq. Derby House, EccUs, Manchester.
1869. Hughes, T. M«K., Esq., M. A., F.G.S., F.S.A. 28 Jermyn Street.
S.W.
1866. Hunt, John, Esq. 156 New Bond Street. W.
1861.tHutchinson, Thomas J., Esq., F.R.G.8., F.R.8.L., F.A.8.L.,
H.B.M. Consul for Rosario, Argentine Republic; Yioe-Pr^
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Bate of
xzz
sident d'Honnenr de rinBtitat. d'AMque, Paris ; Socio £x-
tranjero de la Sociedad Faleontologioa de Buonos Ayres, &o.
&c. Foreign Office.
1863.tHiixley, Professor T. H., LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.8., F.G.S., Pre-
sident of the Biitisli Associatioii. Pbbsident. Mtueum of
Practical Geology ; and 26 Abl>ey Place, St. JohvCs Wood.
N.W.
1869. Inman, Robert M., Esq., M.D., P.E.G.S. Edinburgh Home,
West Street, Brighton.
1869. JeffcoU, J. M., Esq., M.H.K., High Bailiff of Castletowii. Ide
of Man.
1866. Johore, His Highness the Maharajah of Singapore. Care of W.
W. Kerr, Esq., 21 St. SwUhin's Lane. E.G.
1869. Jones, W. A., Esq., M.A., P.G.8. Taunton.
1868. Kemahan, Bey. Dr., E.E.S.L., F.A.S.L. 50 Greenwood Bead,
Dalston.
1845.*tKing, Eichard, Esq., M.D., M.R.C.8., L.S.A., F.A.8.L., Corr.
Mem. Eth. 8. N. York and 8tat. 8. Darmstadt, Hon. Eel. Eth.
8. Paris, H.M. Medical Inspector of Factories. 12 Buhtrode
Strut, Cavendish Square. W.
1869. Eirwan, Bey. Eichard, M.A. Gittisham, Honiton.
1868. Laing, 8amuel, Esq., F.G.8. Brighton.
1861. Lang, Andrew, Esq. Dunmore, TeignmouOi.
1867. Langlands, J., Esq. Victoria, New South Wales.
1867. Lawford, Edward, Esq., M.D. Ldghton Buxzard.
1866. Lennox, Arthur C. W., Esq., F.G.8. Care of Lord T. Cedl, 6
Granville Place, Portman Square. W.
1869. Long, William, Esq., M.A. West Bay, Wrington, Somerset.
1860.*Love, Horatio, Esq. Upper Norwood.
1863.nLubbock, 8ir John, Bart., M.P., F.E.8. Yicb-Pbbsidbht. High
Elms, Famborough, Kent.
1854. McClelland, James, Esq. 32 Pembridge Square, Notting HiU.
1865. Macfarlan, John Gray, Esq. Clyde ViUa, Anerly HUl, Upper
Norwood.
1870. Madeay, George, Esq. Pendhill Court, Bletchingley.
1870. McLennan, J. F., Esq. 81 2 rinces Street, Edinburgh.
1867. Maclnre, Andrew, Esq. 14 Ladbroke Square, Notting HUl.
1866. McNair, Major John Frederick, E.A., Executiye Engineer, Sinn
gapore. Care of Messrs. Codd & Co., 31 Craven Street, Strand.
1855.*Malcolm, W. E., Esq. Bumfoot, Langhohne, near Carlisle.
1864.tMarkham, dements R., Esq., Hon. 1^. Geographical 8ociety.
21 Ecdeston Square, Pindico ; the India Office ; and Oriental
Club, Hanover Square.
1862. Marsh, Matthew, Esq. Athenceum Club ; and Eamridge,Andover,
Hants.
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Date of
Election.
1868.*Martin, Bichard Biddulph, Esq. Lombard Street; and Clare-
wood, Bickley.
1869. Mason, James Wood, Esq. Care of Lovell Kemp, Esq., 2Q
Charles Strut, St. James's.
1867. Maxwell, Sir P. Benson, Cliief Justice. Singapore.
1854. Mayer, Joseph, Esq., F.S.A. Lord Street, Liverpool.
1864. Mayers, W. F., Esq., H.B.M. Vice-Consul, CanUm; and
Foreign Office.
18o6.*Mayson, John S., Esq. Fallowfield, Manchester.
1861. MiUigan, Joseph, Esq., M.D., F.G.S., F.Z.8., F.L.S., M.R.A.8.
15 Northumberland Street, Strand. W.C.
1864.»Milton, Right Hon. Yisconnt, M.P. 17 Qrosvenor Street.
1868. Mitchell, Albert, Esq. Elmstead, Kent.
1858. Mitchell, Alexander, Esq., M.P. 6 Great Stanhope Street, May
Fair ; Caroldde^ Berwickshire.
1869. Moggridge,M.,Esq.,F.G.S. MonmotUhshire. Care of Bey. M. W.
Mof^gridge, Long Ditton, Kingston-on-Thames.
1868. Moody, John, Esq. St. Maurice Villa, ffeworth Boad, Fork.
1870. Morris, E. Bowley, Esq. Gungrog Cottage, Welshpool,
1869. Morris, Eogene, Esq. Birchwood, Sydenham Hill.
1869. Morris, John, Esq. 28 Avenue, Bennett's Park, Blackheath.
1870.»Morrison, W., Esq., M.P. 21 Bolton Street, PieeadiUy. W.
1861.tMonat, F., Esq., M.D., H.M. Inspector-General of Prisons.
Bengal. Care of Lepage & Co., 1 Whitefriars Street, Fleet
Strut.
1870. Mnnton, Francis Kerridge, Esq., F.B.G.S. 21 Montague Strut,
BusseU Square. W.C.
I860. Murchison, Sir Boderidc Impey, Bart, K.C.B., D.C.L., Director-
General of the Museum of Practical Geology, President of the
Boyal Geographical Society. 16 Bdgrave Square. S.W.
1868. Napier, William, Esq. Ardmore Lodge, Spring Orove, Isle-
worth.
1848.*Na8h, Davyd W., Esq. Cheltenham.
1870. Nash, Bobert Lucas, Esq. Craven Cottage, Finchley. N.
1868. Neale, J. Donor, Esq. 13 South Square, Qray's Inn. W.C.
1870. NewaJl, B. 8., Esq. Femdene, Gateshead.
1869. Nicholas, Dr. Thomas, M.A., F.G.S. 3 Craven Strut, Strand.
W.C.
1855. Nicholson, Brinsley, Esq., M.D., Surgeon-Major, Medical Staff,
Cork.
1858. Nicholson, Sir Charles, Bart., F.B.SX., F.B.G.S., &c. 26 Devon-
shire Place, MaryMnme. W.
1870. O'CaJlaghan, P., Esq., LL.D., D.C.L., F.S.A. Leamington.
1869.tOppert, Dr. Gustay. 5 Adelaide Square, Windsor.
1868. Orton, W. Billing, Esq. ChorlUm-on-Medlock^ Lancashire.
1867. Osbom, Captain Sherard, B.N. 119 Gloucester Terrace, Hyde
Park ; and Athenaum Club,
1868. Ouyry, Frederic, Esq., Treasurer S.A. 12 Queen Anne Street,
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Dstoof
BleotioiLi
1862. Parkes, Sir Harry, E.C.B.9 Minister Plenipotentiary, Toddo,
Japan. The Athenamm and Oriental Clube.
1 865. Pereira, Frandsoo E., Esq. Singq^pore.
1862. Perry, Qerald Baoul, Esq., H.M.B. Consul, Stockholm.
1864. Petherick, H. W., Esq. 2 Denmark Villa», Waddon New Road,
Croydon, Surrey.
1862.tPliayre, lieut.-Col. Sir Arthur, Governor of Pegu, British Bur-
mah : and EJ. U.S. Club, 14 St. Jamet^e Square. S.W.
1869. Platts, John, Esq., Inspector of Schools, Central India ; and 24
Ifield Road, Weet BrompUm.
1868. Pope, George K., Esq. New University Club, St. Jameses Street.
1856.^Postlethwaite, J. J., Esq: 65 Besehorough Street, Pimlieo ; and
Northend Cottage, Hastings, Sussex.
1869. Prestwich, Joseph, Esq., E.R.S. Shoreham, Sevenoaks.
1861. Price, Dr. David S. Crystal Palace. S.E.
1868. Price, Lorenzo T. C, Esq. 11 Hockley HtU, Birmingham.
1866. Pulford, Alfred, Esq. BroomhiU, Hampton Wick, Kingston-on--
Thames.
1865. Puller, A. Giles, Esq. Toungsbury, Ware, Herts.
1862. Pusey, S. E. B. Bouverie, Esq., F.R.G.S., F.A.S.L. 7 Green Street,
Orosvenor Square ; and Pusey House, Farringdon, Berks.
1867. Bamsay, John, Esq. 49 Dunhp Street, Glasgow ; and Islay,
Argyllshire.
1861. Katcliff, Charles, Esq., F.R.S.L., F.R.G.S., F.L.S., F.S. A., F.G.S.
The Wyddrington, Edgbaston, Birmingham.
1861. Reid, Lestock R., Esq. 122 Westboume Terrace ; and AUienaum
Club.
1863. Richardson, Francis, Esq. Park Lodge, Blaekheath.
1867. Rogers, George, Esq., M.D. Longwood House, Long A^Uon,
Bristol.
1860. Rolleston, Professor Geoi^, M.D., F.R.S. Oarford.
1865. R6nay, Dr. Hyacinthe. Pesth.
1870. Rosehill, Lord. Easter Warriston House, Edinburgh.
1861. Rowcroft, Lieutenant H. C, Bengal Engineers. Care of
Messrs. S. King & Co., Cornhill E.C.
1862. Ryan, Right Hon. Sir Edward. Garden Lodge, 5 Addison Eoad,
Kensington.
1864. St.^air, Rev. George, F.G.S. 104 Sussex Boad, Seven Sisters*
Eoad, HoUoway. N.
1862.tSt.-John, Spencer, Esq., H.B.M. Consul-General, Hayti; and
Foreign Office.
1836.*Salomons, Alderman Sir David, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.L. 26 Great
Cumberland Street ; and Broom Hill, Tunbridge WeUs.
1869. Sanderson, W. Walbank, Esq. Boyal Infirmary, Manchester.
1866. Scott, Thomas, Esq. Singapore.
1855.*Scouler, Professor John. Glasgow.
1865. Sheffield, Right Hon. the Earl of. 20 Portland Place: and
Sheffield Park, UekfieJd, Sussex.
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ElecUoiL
1862.t8hortt, John, Esq., M.D., M.B.C.P.L., Surgeon of H.M. MadraB
Army, Superintendent Qeneral of Yaccination. Madras Frt-
gidency.
1862. Showers, lieut-Colonel Charles lioneL Agra, India.
1869. Simpson, Bey. James. Kirkhy StepJien, Westmoreland.
1861. Smart, Bath Charles, Esq., M.D., M.B.C.S. Oruk Eowe,
Waterloo Eoad, Manchester.
1860.^Smith, John, Esq. Stroud Qreen, Upper HoUoway.
1869. Smith, Thomas J., Esq. Hessle, Kingston-on-HtUl.
1862. Somervell, William, Esq. Strathaven House, ffendon.
1861.»t8pottiswoode, WiUiam, Esq., F.B.8. 60 Orosvenor Place.
1861.»Stanbridge, W. E., Esq. Wombat, Daylesford, Victoria.
1866. Stepney, Frederick William Cowell, Esq. 8 Bolton Street, Pic-
cadilly. W.
1862. Stevens, N. H., Esq. 14 Finshury Circus, E.C.
1865.*Stewart, Dr. Alexander Patrick. 74 Orosvenor Street, Orosvenor
Square.
1869. Stewart, Captain Charles Edward, 5th Punjab Infantry. 14
Sussex Gardens. W.
1866. Swift, Bichard Levinge, Esq., H.B.M. Consul at Barcelona.
Levinge Lodge, Richmond.
1860. Talbot de Malahide, The Bight Hon. Lord, F.B.S., F.S.A.
Aihenantm Club, Pall Mall; and MoHdhide Castle, near
Dublin.
1867. Tanner, Bev. James, Junior Chaplain Madras Ecclesiastical
Establishment. BeUary, Madras,
1865. Temple, Sir Bichard, E.C.S.I., Minister of Finance, Calcutta.
Indian and Oriental Club, Hanover Square ; and India Office.
1863. Tennant, John, Esq. St. BoUax, Olasgow ; and Brookes Club,
London. S.W.
1866. Thomson, John, Esq. Singapore. Care of John Simpson, Esq.,
52 North Bridge, Edinburgh.
1863. Thurlow, Bev. Edward. Athenaum Club, PaUMall.
1852. Thumam, John, Esq., M.D., F.S.A. Wilts County Asylum,
Devizes.
1870. Tiddeman, Bichard Hill, Esq., B.A., F.G.S., H.M. Geological
Survey. 28 Jermyn Street. S.W.
1866. Timmins, Samuel, Esq., F.B.G.S., F.B.S.L. Elveiham Lodge,
Birmingham.
1849.*Tuke, T. Harrington, Esq., MJ). Manor House, ChiswicJe.
1867.tTylor, Edward Burnett, Esq. Yice-Pbesident. Linden, Wel-
lington, Somerset.
1864. Wade, Thomas Francis, Esq., Secretary H.M. Legation, Peking,
China: and Foreign Office.
1854.»Walker, J. S., Esq. The Bury, Hunsdon, Ware.
1854.»Walker, T., Esq. Beulah Eoad, Tunbridge Wells.
1866.tWallace, Alfred Bussell, Esq. Holly House, Tanner Street,
Barking.
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Date of
Eleotion.
1862. Warner, Edward, Esq., M.P. 49 Orosvenor Place ; andHigham
Hall, Woodford, Essex.
1867. Warren, Thomas T. P. Bruce, Esq. MUcham, Surrey.
1846.*Whishaw, James, Esq., F.S.A. Oriental Club, Hanover Square.
1869. Winwood, Rev. Henry H., M.A., E.G. 8. 11 Cavendish Crescent,
Bath.
1860. Wood, Samuel, Esq. Shrewsbury.
1863. Woods, Eobert Carr, Esq. Care of Messrs. H. 8. King and Co.,
Cornhill. E.G.
1870. Wright, E. Beresford, Esq. Aldercar Hall, LangUy Mills, near
Nottingham.
1853.tWright, Thomas, Esq., M.A., F.8.A., Hon. F.A.S.L., &c.. Corre-
sponding Member of the Institute of France. Vicb-Presidekt.
14 Sydney Street, Brompton. 8.W.
1866. The Library Committee of the Corporation of the City of London.
LIST OP HONORARY FELLOWS OF THE
ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Agassiz, M. Louis. Cambridge, Mass., V.S.
Aner, Alvis. Vienna.
Baer, Professor von. St. Petersburg.
Bastian, M. A. Berlin.
Bonaparte, His Highness Prince Louis Lucien. 8 Norfolk Terrace,
Notting Hill. W. ; and Paris.
Broca, M. Paris.
Darwin, Charles, Esq., M.A., F.E.8. Down, Beckenham.
D'Ayezac, M., Membre de Plnstitut &c. 42 Hue de Bac, Paris.
Dohne, Eey. J. L.
Edwards, H. Milne-, M.D. Paris.
Folsom, George, Esq. New York.
Hayden, Prof. F. V. Philadelphia.
Henry, Professor Joseph. Smithsonian Institution, Washingt<in.
Hodgson, B. H., Esq. The Orange, Wooton^under-Edge, nearAlderley,
Cheshire.
Hunter, W. W., Esq. Bengal Civil Service.
fLatham, R. G., Esq., M.D. Athenasum Club.
Layard, Eight Hon. Austin H., D.C.L., M.D., H.M. Ambassador at the
Court of Madrid.
Leidy, Dr. Joseph. Philadelphia.
Lepsius, Dr. Bd. Berlin.
Leuckart, Dr., Professor of Anatomy and Zoology in the University of
Oiessen.
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Lucae, Dr., Professor of Anatomy in the Senckenburg Institute,
FranJrfort'On-^'Main.
Haury, M. Alfred, Member of the Institnte, Paris,
Meigs, Dr. J. Aitken, Librarian of the Academy of Natural Sciences,
PMhdelphia,
Miiller, Professor Max. Oxford,
Nicolncci, Dr. Giustiniano. Naples.
tNilsson, Professor. Stockholm.
Otto, Professor. Copenhagen,
Palgrave, W. Gifford, Esq. TrMzond.
Perty, Professor. Berne.
Phcebus, Dr., Professor of Natoral Philosophy in the University of
Giessen,
Pictet, M. Geneva.
Qnatrefages, M. A. de,Membre de Tlnstitat, and Professor of Ethnology.
Jardin des HanteSj Paris.
Quetelet, M. L. A. J., Astronomer Eoyal, Brussels,
Bawlinson, Major-General Sir Henry, K.C.B., E.R.S. 21 Charles Street^
Berkeley Square.
Renan, M. E., Member of the Institate, Paris.
Eoth, Professor. Heidelberg,
Scherzer, Dr. Carl Ritter von. Vienna.
Semper, Professor Carl. Wurzburg,
Steenstrup, Japetns, Esq. Copenhagen.
Steinhaner, Carl, Director of the Ethnological Museum, Copenhagen.
Sutherland, J. P., Esq., M.D. Natal, SoiUh Africa.
Yogt, Professor Carl. Geneva.
Walther, Dr. Philipp A. Darmstadt.
Wilkinson, Sir J. Gardner, F.R.S.
Wrangell, Admiral Perdinand yon. St. Petersburg,
LIST OF CORRESPONDING MEMBERS OF THE
ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Appleyard, Rev. W.
Baker, W. Bailey. New Zealand,
tBollaert, W., Esq. 21 a Hanover Square, W.
Clark, Robert, Esq.
Firm, James, Esq. Jerusalem,
Friend, Wm., M.A., LL.D. Breslau.
Fullner, Monsieur A. D.
Giglio, Professor. Pavia,
Henderson, Rey. Alex.
Inglis, Rev. John.
Isenburg, Rev.
Jef&ies, Edmund, Esq. KondosaUa, Ceylon,
fJones, James, Esq. Amoy, China,
Enapp, Rev. J. L.
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ZZXVl
tLockhart, William, Esq., M.R.C.S.
Logan, Alexander, Esq. Singapore.
Macgowan, Dr. 518 Broadway, New York.
tMann, Robert James, Esq., M.D. 6 Duke Street, Strand,
Meadows, Thomas Taylor, Esq.
Miles, William Augustus, Esq.
tOliver, Lieut. S. P., R.A., F.R.G.8. 40 ffauteviHe, Guernsey.
O'Riley, Edward, Esq. Burmah.
Patterson, Edmund, Esq. Sydney, New South Wales.
Pickering, Dr. Charles.
Robinson, Edward, Esq., D.D., LL.D.
Robinson, G. A., Esq. Paris.
Ross, J. G. C, Esq. Cocoa Island, near Java.
Schwarcz, Dr. Julius.
Swinhoe, Robert, Esq.
Threlkeld, Rev. Mr. Sydney.
Turner, Professor.
Wienecke, M. Le Docteur, Officier de Sant^ de S. M. le Roi des Pays-
Bas. Batavia.
Vaughan, J. D., Esq.
*^* FeUows of the Society are particularly requested to oommunicate
any change of residence to the Assistant-Socretary as early aa
possible.
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THE JOURNAL
07 THB
ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
Ordinary Meeting^ Nov. 9th, 1869.
Professor Huxlet, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair.
New Members. — Sir William Vernon Guise, Bart., P.G.S.,
F.L.S. ; Rev. W. A. Jones, F.G.S.; Rev. Richard Kirwan,
M.A. ; Rev. Henry H. Winwood, M.A., F.G.S.; Dr. Gustav
Oppert; Robert D. Darbishire, Esq., B.A., F.G.S. ; J. M,
Jeffcott, Esq., M.H.K.; William Long, Esq., M.A.; M.
MoooRiDOE, Esq., F.G.S. ; and John Plaits, Esq.
Mr. S. Thompson exhibited a collection of photographs of
Stonehenge and other megalithic structures.
Col. A. Lane Fox exhibited some worked flints, which he had
recently found at Stonehenge ; and, at the request of the Pre-
sident, made the following remarks on the proposed examination
of this structure : —
I. On tfie Proposed Exploration of Stonehenoe by a Com-
mittee of the British Association. By Col. A. Lane
Fox, F.S.A.
It may perhaps be desirable that I should take advantage of the
opportimity afforded by the exhibition this evening of a series of
admirably-executed photographs of Stonehenge, by Mr. S.Thomp-
son, to state to the Society the steps which were taken this year
by the British Association, at Exeter, to promote a systematic
examination of this monument, with the view of determining,
if possible, the long-standing question of its origin and uses.
Perhaps no better illustration could be given of the unwarrant-
able deductions of past ages than by quoting the long list of opi-
nions which have been hazarded upon this monument, side by side
with the fact that, up to the present time, no proper exploration
of the place has been attempted. Since the time of Henry of
Hmitingdon, who was the first author by whom Stonehenge is
VOL. II. /^^^^T^
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2 Col. A. Lane Fox — On the Proposed Exploration
mentioned^ in the twelfth century^ few antiquaries of note have
written without giving the world the benefit of their speculations
upon this structure. It has been attributed to every race that
has contributed to the population of these isles, not even ex-
cepting the Romans. It has been described, in turns, as a place
of worship, a court of justice, a place of burial, a sanctuary, a
race-course, or a hanging-place; and learned reasons have been
assigned for considering it an observatory ; but I am not aware
that any of these conjectures have better foundation for them
than the old legend which ascribes the origin of the place to
Merlin, who brought the stones from Ireland by supernatural
agency, and set them up here. To the best of my Imowledge,
no attempt has been made to remove the turf and examine the
soil within the enclosure for those relics of the constructors
which afford the only reliable evidence of the origin and uses of
such structures. All the tumuli in the neighbourhood have been
opened ; and a small tumulus within the area of the earthwork
surrounding the standing stones has been examined; but as
there is good reason for supposing this tumulus to be of older
date than the earthwork, its contents throw no light upon the
monument itself.
Apart from the question whether or not it is a place of burial,
which would at once be set at rest by an examination of the
ground within the enclosure, it is hardly possible to conceive
that stones of such great magnitude should have been trans-
ported to this place, rough-hewn probably upon the spot, and
that excavations should have been made for the reception of the
massive uprights, without leaving in the soil trampled beneath
the feet of the constructors some traces of the implements em-
ployed during the operations, which if brought to light would
suffice at least to determine the period and degree of civilization
of the people who erected it.
That such relics might be expected to turn up if the soil
were properly examined, appears probable from the fact of my
having found several worked flints in the rubbish around the
Trilithons, during the short visit that I paid to the spot this
year on my way to Exeter. Observing that two or three bare
places had been scratched in the soil, apparently by animals, at
the foot of the stones, I examined the loose earth carefully, and
succeeded in finding the four flints which are exhibited to the
meeting. Two of these, it will be seen, are perfect flakes, hav-
ing bulbs of percussion, with ribs and facets at the back — ^points
which it is hardly necessary to mention are now admitted by
all prehistoric archaeologists to be evidence of human agency.
Besides the flakes, I observed numerous small splinters of flint,
such as might well have resulted from the fracture of flint tools.
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of Stonehenge by a Committee of the British Auociation. 3
had such been used in the process of dressing the great blocks;
but upon this point I should not wish to hazard a conjecture
without examining a larger quantity of soil than presented itself
upon the few bare spots from which the turf had been removed
at the time of my visit.
It may be thought^ perhaps^ that the occurrence of flakes in
the places indicated, proves nothing, because the soil may be
everywhere teeming with worked flints owing to the abundance
of tumuli in the neighbourhood. This, however, is not the case.
As cultivation has now encroached upon the plain to within a
short distance of Stonehenge, I was able to examine a field close
by that had been ploughed, rolled, and subsequently washed by
the rain, and which was therefore in the best possible condi-
tion for finding the flints, had there been any ; but I failed to
discover a single worked flint of any kind, except in one place
where a small tumulus had been scored by the plough; here I
picked up as many as twenty, some of which are exhibited. In
all the tumuli in this neighbourhood, as in those of other parts
of England, evidence of the practice of strewing worked flints
upon the grave is observed ; and the fact of finding flakes in any
number in Stonehenge would serve to connect it in this practice
with the tumuli. Now, the majority of the tumuli hereabout
are found by their contents to belong to the bronze age ; and Sir
John Lubbock has inferred, from the presence of an unusual
number of these tumidi within a radius of three miles of the
place, that Stonehenge may also, with great probability, be at-
tributed to this period : the flakes tend to confirm this supposi-
tion. Supposing, however, it were to be proved hereafter, as
seems not impossible, that Stonehenge belongs to the bronze
age, it would not necessarily follow that the stones were dressed
with bronze tools. I am inclined to think, on the contrary, that
stone or flint, used with sand and water, would be the more Ukely
materials to be employed for the purpose. In any case, the
wear and tear of the implements must have been considerable.
Having mentioned my discovery to Mr. Stevens, of Salisbury, I
learnt from him that the Wiltshire Archaeological Society had
applied some time ago to Sir Edmund Antrobus, the owner of
the property, for permission to make the necessary excavations ;
but that gentleman had been unwilling to grant permission, on
the ground that the examination of a monument of such great
national interest ought not to be entrusted to a local society.
It therefore appeared to me desirable that the subject should be
brought before the British Association; and having consulted
Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Evans, who concurred in my sugges-
tion, it was decided that this should be done. The following
gentlemen were therefore appointed by the Association as Mem-
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4 Col. A. Lane Fox — On the Exploration of Stonehenge.
bers of a Committee^ with instruction to apply to Sir Edmund
Antrobus for permission to make the necessary investigations,
viz., Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., John Evans, Esq., F.R.S.,
Geoi^e Busk, Esq., F.R.S., E. T. Stevens, Esq., and myself.
The Committee having subsequently met and considered the
necessary measures to be taken, has applied in due form to Sir
Edmund Antrobus. No decided answer has been received as
yet j and it is presumed Sir Edmund is anxious to take the gene-
ral sense of archaeologists on the subject before granting per-
mission. Under these circumstances, it appears to be desirable
that I should bring the subject to the notice of this Society,
which has at all times taken such deep interest in the megalithic
monuments of this country, with the view of affording to the
Members, should they feel disposed, an opportunity of cooperating
in the recommendation of the British Association. There are
only two heads imder which, in my humble judgment, any valid
objection could be raised to the proposal of the Committee: — first,
from the apprehension that the excavation might endanger the
stability of the monument ; and, secondly, from doubts as to the
competence of the Committee appointed for the purpose. With
regard to the first objection, I think there is no reasonable
ground for fear. The part to be examined would be the flat
surface within the stone circles, which it would only be neces-
sary to excavate as far as the natural surface of the chalk ; nor
would it be necessary to approach anywhere near the foundations
of the Trilithons ; no trace of the excavations would be observable
when the soil and turf were replaced. It might also be desi-
rable to examine the ditch of the earthwork surrounding the
structure. As regards the competence of the Committee, I
think that, as a very humble Member of it myself, and having
no pretension to act in any other capacity than that of its Secre-
tary, I may safely say, of those associated with me, that it would
not be possible in all Europe to find four persons better qualified
for the undertaking than those whose names I have mentioned.
In Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Evans we have the two best
authorities of our age upon prehistoric subjects ; in Mr. Busk's
hands any human or animal remains that may turn up will be
treated with that great scientific knowledge which he alone is
competent to devote to them, while Mr. Stevens's great archae-
ological experience and local knowledge render his services in-
dispensable in any properly-conducted examination of Stone-
henge. I trust, therefore, that with a Committee so constituted,
backed by the authority of what has been aptly termed our Na-
tional Parliament of Science, and aided, as I hope we shall be,
by the good wishes of this Society, the Society of Antiquaries,
and other archaeological Societies of London, Sir Edmund
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C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race. 5
Antrobus may be induced to accede to the request of the Asso-
ciation^ and thereby to settle (if science and observation can
settle) a question which for seven centuries has been regarded
as one of the most interesting subjects of inquiry ever submitted
to the judgment of archaeologists.
The following paper was then read by the author : —
II. On the Chinese Race: their Language^ Government^ Social
Institutions, and Religion. By C. T. Gardner, Esq.,
F.R.G.S., of Her Britannic Majesty's Consular Service in
China.
In treating of the Chinese people, the points to which I am most
particularly desirous to direct attention are : — their extreme anti-
quity and conservatism ; the phenomenon they afford of a great
modern nation possessing the characteristics of nations long since
extinct ; the tenacitv with which they have retained the roost
ancient principles of primitive government, and the skill with
which they have adapted them to the requirements that arise in
ruling a vast empire ; and, finally, the fact of their having dis-
covered a method of rendering the most primitive form of writing
capable of expressing the abstract truths of a profound philosophy
and the fanciful flights of a fertile imagination. These points
render China a most promising field for the researches of the
ethnologist.
With regard to the written characters, Chinese legends state
that the first attempt of man to express his wants by means of
symbols instead of by words was by tying knots in string at
different distances apart. It is said that about 2800 b. c, Fo-hi in-
vented the following eight symbols : — ;;^^^ heaven, or pervading
principle, "" "* balance, . water, ^^earthqtuike, ^ ^ wood,
^-^ sacrifice, ^ — boundary, and ^ — the earth. At the same
Hme, pictorial representations of these knotted strings were taken
to represent the object thereby symbolized. Another Chinese
legend tells us that the most ancient forms were 540 characters,
formed by a combination of the knotted strings and the eight
symbols, made in the form of birds^ claws in various states of
tension, and that these 540 characters were suggested to the
inventor by the marks left by birds' feet on the sand. Leaving
legends, we find that the Ghmese themselves have from the most
ancient times classified their characters under six heads, and that
this classification, although made in times too remote to admit of
any date being affixed, yet holds good in the present day. The
six divisions are as follow : — ideographic, figurative-combined,
indicative, reversed, borrowed or metaphoiic, and phonetic cha-
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6 C. T. Oabdner — On the Chinese Race :
racters. This grouping closely resembles the classification of
hieroglyphics into ideographic, determinative, and phonetic.
The ideographic group of hieroglyphics would correspond with
the first five divisions of the Chinese, while the sixth Chinese
division would comprise both the determinative and the phonetic.
So far, the identity of the principle of the Chinese character
and of the hieroglyphics is evident ; but a slight difierence exists
in the use of phonetics; and here, curiously enough, the Egyptian
shows a greater resemblance to the alphabetic system than the
Chinese, both in regularity of sound following its proper phonetic
symbol, and in form of writing.
Mr. Hunter, in his learned work on the Aryan and non- Aryan
languages, of Asia, has shown a wonderful sonal similarity among
the various languages of the east and west. I may, in passing,
remark that had Mr. Hunter, in the part devoted to Chinese,
distinguished where the variation of the Chinese dialects was
one merely of pronunciation, and where it was one also of the
word used, he would still further have enhanced the value of
his work.
Still it is sufficiently evident that the sonal similarity of the
Aryan and what have been generally called non- Aryan lan-
guages is deserving of attention. It is true that a theory has
been advanced to explain this fact, to the effect that human
language had its origin in the imitation of the cries of animals ;
and arguing thus, it is easy to imagine that all human beings,
having heard lambs bleat, would all fix on the same sounds, ma
for mother, nndpa {or father; but it may, we deem, be reasonably
asked why all the human race should have selected the bleating
of sheep to express affiliation, and not have taken as their model
the lowing of kine, or the whistlings of birds. Be that as it
may, I think it would be possible to point out that a similarity
also exists in the form of writing^.
But the question, of course, arises whether these coincidences
are purely accidental, or whether they are small links in a chain
tending to show a connexion between the several races.
Originally each character in Chinese expressed an idea. These
characters are either simple or compound ; but, from the changes
that have taken place in the Chinese mode of writing, it is difficult
to assert with exactitude which are the simple characters and
which the compound. Comparatively recent Chinese lexicogra-
phers discovered the fact that there were 214 signs which occurred
in all the 40,000 characters of which the language is composed.
Each of these 214 signs has a meaning of its own, as a separate
character, and in general modifies the meaning (not the sound)
** [The author exhibited a number of diagiams intended to illuBtrate the
relation that he sought to trace between certain characters in Chinese, Hebrew,
Arabic, and Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.— Sub-Ed.]
.gitized by Google
their Language, Government, Social Institutions, ifc. 7
of the compound character of which it forms part. Thus^ a
single compound character will represent lion or tiger, wolf or
fox-, but in each there will be the simple character which stands
for dog. Sometimes a character is formed by the composition
of two radicals, each of which gives part of the meaning to the
composite character ; thus, the radiccd meaning one, added to the
radical standing for great, signifies heaven; while the radical
htart, added to the radical white, denotes fear. Besides the
radicals, there are some seven hundred characters which may be
termed /^Aone/tctf; these added to the radical give, to a certain
extent, the sound of the character of which they form part ; thus,
cKing (azure) added to the radical signifying water, means
clear or clean ; to the radical signifying cart, it denotes light in
weight; to that signifying heart, it measiB feeling or emotion; to
that denoting sun, it implies bright, while to that signifying
words, it means to beg. la all these examples, the compound
characters are pronounced by the same sound, though not in
the same tone, as the original phonetic character, ch'ing, while
the radicals to which it is joined are successively pronounced,
shui, chi, hsin,Ji, yen. The same phonetic joined to the radical
muh (the eye), signifies translucent or clearly; to mi (rice), it
signifies semen, and is pronomiced ching without the aspirate.
With this double system of a radical to express the genus, and
the phonetic to express the sound, it will be easily perceived that
the Chinese written language possesses a greater power even than
the Greek or Grerman for the coining of new words; and I sup-
pose it was in reference to this that M. Remusat expressed the
opinion that, if ever a universal language were arrived at, it would
be the Chinese.
There are, however, two things in the very nature of the
Chinese language which, I think, are sufficient to prevent the
consummation hinted at by M. Remusat. The first is the
complicated construction of the Chinese character. At a very
early period the Chinese discovered the inconvenience of the
purely pictorial method of writing, and substituted fixed signs to
represent the thing desired to be expressed. So long ago was
this done that no examples can now be obtained of writing in
the ancient pictorial form. Still the Chinese character passed
through many intermediate stages before it became fixed in its
present form. In some of the more ancient of these intermediate
stages we have only a few characters preserved to us. Each new
form of writing has been an improvement on the one that pre-
ceded it.
In the present day there are two forms of writing — ^the printed,
or official, and the current hand. The objection to the printed
or official is the difficulty of writing it : each character, unlike
the hieroglyphic, occupies the same space, and is variously formed
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8 C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race :
by from one stroke of the brush up to as many as sixty or more ;
hence the lines are of different sizes^ so that a man^ to write
Chinese neatly^ must have considerable powers as a draughtsman^
and even then, in spite of the terseness of the Chinese written
language, the most practised Chinese writer would take more
than double the time to copy a Chinese document that an En-
glishman would occupy to copy the English translation. The
objection to the running hand is twofold : — ^first, that we lose in
it, to a great extent, the generic nature of the Chinese character ;
and, secondly, that, from its being a kind of short hand, it is very
difficult to decipher, except in conveying the simplest possible
ideas : hence it is used only in accounts, memoranda, and small
notes, although, for purposes of ornament, prefaces to books are
generally printed in the current hand.
Another reason that will prevent the Chinese, ever becoming a
universal tongue, is the impossibility of the spoken language being
identical with the written. I have before remarked that, with the
exception of a few expletives, each character represents an idea;
but each character is only a monosyllable, and in Pekinese there
are only 690 odd sounds to represent the whole of the written
language. Even if we add together all the different monosyllabic
sounds employed in the local dialects throughout the empire, we
should not have, I believe, more than 1200. To obviate this diffi-
culty, the Chinese, besides the sound, have invented a system of
tones or fixed inflexions of the voice, in which each character
must be pronounced. These tones differ in number and applica-
tion : thus, in northern mandarin there are four ; in the southern
mandarin there are likewise four, though not precisely the same ;
in Cantonese there are eight ; and, I believe, in some dialects
there are as many as twelve or fourteen. The same character
pronounced in different tones has different meanings : thus, hao
(to love), formed of the two radicals mother and child, means
good or well or very according as it is pronounced in different
tones. Still in Pekinese there are in common use as many as
37 characters, all of different meanings, with the same sound
chi, and pronounced with the same inflexion of voice; hence, did
one speak as tersely as is intelligible in writing, one would not
be understood. Again, the Chinese written language being in-
capable of inflexion, one has to judge, in books, by the context, in
great measure, as to the case and number of the substantives,
and as to the tense and mood of the verbs. In the spoken lan-
guage this difficulty of the absence of declension is met by the
construction of polysyllabic words formed by joining together
two or more characters : thus, fien (heaven) is generally called
in speaking chHng fien or azure heaven; jih (the sun), jiA tou
or sun's head; mu (mother), mu chHn or mother-relation; a pcr-
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their LanguaffCy GovemmerU, Social Institutions^ ifc. 9
trait^ hsinff lo iu or a picture that puts in motion pleasant remi^
niscences; " a photograph/^ chao hsiang or ray-of -light likeness.
Another plan is that of adding a numeric expletive : thus^ san
being three, one says: — san k^owjen, or ''three mouth-men;"
san wei kwan, or '' three persons mandarins ; " san kai kwan, or
" three roof-offices ; '^ san ko hsing, or '' three grain-stars;" san
ko hsing, " three names/' &c. Puns and verbal equivoques are
thus very easy ; and many Europeans who cannot catch the dis-
tinction of tones^ sometimes make very ludicrous mistakes.
I have already made some observations as to the different
forms of the Chinese character; but besides these, the written
language or literature contains six distinct styles : —
1. Ancient poetry. 4. Despatch style.
2. Ancient classic. 5. Descriptive.
3. Essay style. 6. Colloquial.
The first two styles are as distinct from the modern language
as Latin is from Italian. In them are the writings of the ancient
sages, which have to be learnt by candidates for examinations.
These ancient books have been translated into the descriptive
style ; and learned native commentators often differ in their ren-
dering of many of the difficult passages. The third style is used
in Imperial edicts, memorials to the throne, and original essays
composed on a given subject, or themes. The despatch style is
used in letters and despatches ; the descriptive in ordinary works ;
and the colloquial in romances, and in reports of evidence, where
conversation is set down as it actually occurred. One ethic work,
called the Sacred Edict, has been translated into colloquial.
The spoken language is divided into two great branches, Man^
darin and local dialects. The Mandarin, again, may be divided
into two branches. Northern and Southern ; the Northern is the
more fashionable, but less pure, being corrupted by Manchu
lisps, accents, &c. The two dialects, however, are so similar,
that a person acquainted with one can readily understand the
other. Mandarin is understood and spoken more or less all
over the empire by officials, respectable shopmen, merchants, &c.,
and is itself the local dialect as far south as Shantung, and of
many individual towns in other provinces.
The local dialects are endless in number, and are some of
them as different from Mandarin, and from each other, as are
English, French, and Spanish — ^though, like these languages, they
employ the same system of written characters. It is by no means
an uncommon occurrence for Ningpo, Shangai, Amoy, Swatow,
Hongkong, Hakka, and Cantonese men to be obliged to resort to
what is called '' pijin English " to render themselves intelligible
one to another.
Sometimes the difference of dialect is merely one of pronun-
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10 C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race :
ciation ; but sometimes it is also a diflTerence of character em-
ployed. I have observed that where the Cantonese employ a
different word from that used in the Mandarin^ one genertdly
finds that^ on comparing the characters^ the Cantonese is the
more ancient word of the two : thus^ many of the words in the
ancient classics are in colloquial use in Cantonese^ while very few
are in vogue in Mandarin. I have heard that the Fokienese is
still more ancient ; but as I am totally unacquainted with that
dialect^ I cannot vouch for the fact.
Many are the difficulties which the student experiences in
reading Chinese. Among these may be noted : — ^the absence of
inflexion ; the fact that many words are substantives, verbs,
adjectives or adverbs, according to the context ; the absence of
punctuation, and the want of any distinction between a word
commencing and a word ending a sentence, or between proper
names and common nouns.
There is a great peculiarity about proper names in China,
namely that characters forming part of them become forbidden
{chHn tzUy as they are called). No man may write, for example,
any character that forms part of either his mother^s or his father^s
name, but must use another character of the same sound and
significance ; and where such other character does not already
exist, he must invent one. Any character forming part of an
Emperor's name, is henceforth forbidden all over the Empire :
thus ning (peaceful) was originally written differently from
its present form, but being a character entering into an emperor's
name it was necessarily changed. Any candidate at an exami-
nation writing a forbidden character would at once be plucked.
Each Emperor, besides his own name, has a title of his reign
(nien hao as it is called), and a canonized name or posthumous
title given him after his death (called miao hao, or " Temple
name "). Hien fung, for instance, was not the late Emperor's
real name, but only the title of his reign. When he was buried,
he was canonized under the posthumous title of Wen tsung hsien,
or " Illustrious for Literary Ancestors.'' The characters forming
part of the title of reign and posthumous title are not forbidden.
With regard to the proper names of subjects, every Chinaman
has: — a surname, which he derives from his father; a name
given him eight days after his birth by his parents, and by which
he is only addressed by his closest relatives ; a nickname, some-
times of a complimentary character, and sometimes the reverse,
by which he is addressed by his companions ; and, lastly, his
literary name, which he has assumed at the examinations. In
speaking to a man, except one is very intimate with him or he
is a servant, one addresses him by his patronymic, with the
addition of Sien-Sang (Mr.) to a non-official, Lao-yi (Esq.),
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their Language, Government, Social Institutions, ^c. 1 1
Tai-yi (Your Honour), Ta-hu-yi (Your Worship), or Ta-jen
(Your Excellence), according to rank. An assistant-magistrate
is called Lao-yi ; a magistrate, Tat^yh^ a prefect, Ta^ou-yi, and
a Taofai and his superiors, Ta-Jen,
An intimate friend is always addressed by his literary name.
In writing, the use of the patronymic is not so common, and is
seldom us^, except in addressing strangers and in official cor-
respondence. A wife is generally called by her maiden surname
when speaking of her or describing her in official documents ,* but
in addressing her it is more complimentary to do so by her
husband's patronymic ; the name she receives from her parents
is used in about the same way as a lad/s Christian name
in England. Chinese proper surnames are limited in number
to one hundred. No persons of the same surname are allowed
to marry. Tatars have other surnames besides those of the
Chinese. Before their intercourse with the Chinese, their system
of patronymics was similar to that of the Parsees and Indian
Jews ; that is to say, each Tatar took the first name of his father
as his own surname. Now, however, the Tatars have adopted
the Chinese custom in name as in every thing else.
In Government, while preserving the most primitive form — ,
the patriarchal — ^the Chinese have so adapted it as to make it fit
into the complications that must necessarily arise in the social
relations of a highly civilized nation numberiug 400 millions of
people. Their theory of government may be thus briefly stated.
The emperor, whose title is " Son of Heaven,^' owes obedience
to G-od as bis father, and stands in loco parentis, as regards
authority, to the whole empire. A viceroy stands in loco parentis
to two provinces ; a governor-general, to one province ; an in-
tendant of circuit or Taot'ai, to about one quarter of a province ;
a prefect, over about a sixteenth part of a province ; and the
district-magistrate, over about an eightieth of a province. The
district-magistrate occupies the positions both of judge of the
lower, criminal, and civil courts, and of collector of the revenue
of his district ; this will include, in weU-populated provinces,
about 400 square miles, and in less-crowded provinces about
1000, and even 1500 square miles. He is assisted in his duties
by a stafi^ of assistant-magistrates and candidates for entering
the government service. Each magistrate's district is subdivided
into what the Chinese called Ti (literally lands), or what we
may call parishes. These parishes are so regulated as to contain
each from 150 to 200 families, and are of greater or less extent
according to the density of the population. For each parish,
one of the inhabitants is chosen by his fellows to be a sort of
mediator between the official magistrate and the people. This
person, called by the Chinese the '' parish security,'' is generally
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12 C. T. Gardnisk — On the Chinese Race :
termed, in European works on China, a " mayor/' His office is
one of far more trouble than either emolument or honour.
Being chosen by the people, these mayors are a great guarantee
for liberty ; and in case of riot often side with the people against
the authorities. No district-magistrate would attempt to carry
a measure in which he was opposed by all the mayors of the
district. At the same time, the magistrate has the power severely
to punish any mayor for a lache of duty, either by fine, im-
prisonment, or flogging. GeneraUy speaking, these mayors are
more the mouthpieces than the directors of public opinion ; they
are always natives of the place of their duties, while, ft*om the
magistrate upwards, no mandarin is allowed to hold office in his
native province.
The Magistrate's duties are those of a registrar ; he has to
forward the government mails, put down disturbances, etc., and
is considered in part a mediator between the people and the divini-
ties. He is generally addressed l)y the title o{ father and mother
of the district ; nor, to the fervid minds of an eastern people, is
this title meaningless.
The duty of the Prefect is more connected with public works
and education, though he is often deputed by the Taot'ai to hear
appeals from the judgment of the Chihien ; but even in those
matters most connected with his peculiar sphere he is by no
means able to act on his own responsibility. In the educational
department, such as for instance the prefectural and government
examinations, he is assisted and controlled by a board of un-
official scholars, one of whom is generally appointed a local pre-
sident for the publication of government works of instruction.
In the public works' department, such as the mending of roads,
building of bridges, &c., he is aided by a municipal council,
formed of the presidents of the various leading guilds and chief
landed gentry ; and the prefect does little more than give his
sanction or veto to their deliberations. The Taot'ai, though a
civil officer, directs altogether in time of peace, and in great
measure in times of war, the military and naval operations and
the manner of fortification, &c. He is likewise general supe-
rior to the prefects and Chihiens in his circuit, and holds courts
of appeal firom the decisions of the latter, but in all impor-
tant measures he generally consults the landed gentry, scholars,
and principal merchants.
The Governor-General exercises a general supervision over
his province, and, except that he has to obey the instructions of
the ministry at Peking, is almost a sovereign. He has his court
and secretaries of state and council for the province, corre-
sponding with those of the sovereign for the empire. Attached
to his court is a provincial judge, whose duty it is to hear
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their Language, Government, Social Institutions, 8fc. 13
appeals from the court of the Taot'ai, 8tc. The Viceroy, besides
being nominally the superior of one governor-general, often
rules another province himself as governor-general. Attached
to the court of the Emperor are certain officers called Censors,
whose duty it is to report to the Emperor in cases of misconduct
of any of the officials or courtiers.
Such is the government of sixteen of the provinces. The
province of Pe-chi-li, being the seat of the Court, is governed
in a slightly different manner, so as to bring it more directly
under the central government. The province of Liaou-yang,
which is beyond the Great Wall of China, but which was en-
closed l)y a palisade soon after the Manchu conquest of China,
having been the original seat of the Manchu Government, still
retains to a great extent Tatar traditions in its government.
In all the other provinces of China the military is subordinate
to the civil officer ; a general has often to receive instructions
from a civilian nominally far his inferior in rank. Here, how-
ever, the civil authorities are under the military ; here, too, the
form of government preserves a record of the national jealousy
that existed between the Chinese and Manchu races at their first
fusion — a national jealousy which has now entirely disappeared.
It is the rule that while all the military mandarins of the pro-
vince must be of Tatar birth, there shall to each officer be
attached a civilian adviser, who shall receive emoluments and
rank almost equal to those of his military confrire, and that
these civilians shall be exclusively Chinese by birth. It is a
matter of remark that the province of Liaou-yang is by far the
worst governed of the whole empire j and that of Pe-chi-li,
though not nearly so bad, is, I believe, worse governed than any
of the other provinces.
Having thus given a brief outline of the administrative govern-
ment of the country, I proceed to describe its fiscal system.
Taxes were originally raised in the old patriarchal way — the
tiller of the ground giving a proportion of his crop to the go-
vernment. This was soon commuted into a fixed quantity of
rice per mow or sixth of an acre. At present, this land-tax, or,
as it is called. Government Rice- rent, is payable on all land —
sometimes in rice forwarded to Peking, and sometimes in money.
This land-tax varies according to circumstances, from a few
pence in hill-districts to £2 an acre in large towns.
In addition to land-tax, the public revenue receives aid from
the government monopoly in salt, and from export and import
taxes. When these latter are on trade carried in foreign bot-
toms, they are collected by the aid of European and American
gentlemen in the Chinese service, on the same principles as
in western nations; while those on trade carried in native
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14 C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race :
bottoms are collected by Chinese officials^ in a manner more
conducive to their own satisfaction than to the profit of the
imperial treasury. These import and export duties only clear
the goods at the port itself^ further duties (called transit dues)
having to be paid at barriers erected on the road between the
port and the interior. Lastly^ there are the war-taxes^ collected
in various manners^ the product of which should in theory be
applied to the military defences and expenditure of the province
in which they are required. A fixed sum is estimated as being
necessary ; and, after consultation with the different presidents
of the trading-guilds, landed gentry, &c., the authorities decide
as to the sum each guild shall pay, leaving the guild the power
to raise such sum in what manner it may see fit. The money
is generally raised indirectly, by levying a small tax on each sale
of goods. This, with the transit taxes, cripples trade very much,
and almost annihilates speculation. It has a further injurious
eflFect on the wealth of the country, by subverting the principle
of division of labour. Thus a man has, as it were, a premium
offered him for growing his own cotton, flax, wheat, sugar, &c.
for his own use. Unsatisfactory as the Chinese fiscal system is
in a commercial point of view, much may be urged in its favour
in a sentimental light. The peasant who is able, with the aid
of his family, to support himself independently of any circu-
lating medium is naturally a much more intelligent being than
the artisan whose sole qualification is perhaps the perfection
with which he makes the thirty-second part of a pin !
Besides these Government taxes, Chinamen in towns have to
pay local rates, assessed by local municipal councils, for repairing,
lighting the streets, &c. These local rates are generally levied
on the principle of a percentage on the rent of the habitation.
While political economists may deplore the backwardness of
the Chinese fiscal system, I think jurists will be absolutely
startled at hearing that a nation of nearly 400 millions has ex-
isted hitherto quite happily without any Civil Code whatever. I
deem it very probable, however, from the attention the govern-
ment is now bestowing on the civil laws of European nations, that
this defect will soon be remedied. Meanwhile the want of a
civil code is supplied in three manners: first, by imperial edicts;
secondly, by custom and the sayings of the sages ; and, thirdly, by
the criminal law. With regard to imperial edicts^ the Govern-
ment at Peking publishes daily a Gazette, containing lists of
promotions, appointments, memorials to the throne, national
news, and imperial edicts or ukases. These gazettes often con-
tain imperial decisions with regard to complicated civil cases,
and form precedents highly useful though by no means servilely
followed. Edicts, too, are sometimes repealed by edict, and are
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their iMnguage, Government, Social Institutions, ifc, 15
sometimes allowed to become obsolete. Local custom obtains
much more force in China than it does in our courts ; the usual
manner of conducting trade would be more taken into conside-
ration than the letter of written documents, while ancient say-
ings and wise saws go far in modifying a legal decision.
Much is said concerning the barbarous nature of the Chinese
Criminal Code, the torture of witnesses, and the like. Without
reminding ourselyes that it is not long since we did the same,
I shall briefly touch upon the practice of putting witnesses to
the question. With Asiatics verbal truth is hardly recognized
as a virtue, while fidelity to one^s friend, clan, or guild is re-
garded ; consequently giving false evidence in court is so xmi-
versal that it is impossible to attempt to punish for peijury
except on the spot. Again, it is difficult to obtain witnesses,
not because they fear the torture in court, but that they are
afraid of the vengeance of somebody who may fancy himself in-
jured by their testimony. Moreover no amount of evidence is
sufficient to convict a man unless he himself confesses his guilt.
Hence, when a case is clearly made out, torture is resorted to
in order to make him confess and thus fulfil the requirements
of the law.
Though, nominally, in China there are no such things as
Court-fees or hired advocates, yet the necessary bribes and pre-
sents make a Chinese law-suit as expensive a luxury as it is in
England ; and this, combined with the absence of civil laws,
renders the judgment in any given case almost as uncertain as
the multiplicity of our civil laws makes it in our own country.
To obtain an appointment under Government, it is necessary
that the candidate should have passed with success several com-
petitive examinations. There are four principal degrees, Han-
Un, Chin-sze, Chu-jen, and Hsiu-ts'ai. A fixed number of these
degrees are allotted to the Chinese, and are called civil degrees,
and a fixed number to the Tatars, and called military degrees.
The lowest degree is competed for at the prefectural town, the
next at the provincial capital, and the two highest at Peking. A
fixed number of the lowest degrees are allowai to each province.
Every precaution is taken to ensure fair examination. After
obtaining a literary degree, the candidate has to exert his in-
fluence in order to obtain a nomination to purchase a civil official
post. Of course, the higher his literary attainments, the less
interest he requires to obtain this nomination. Having secured
this, he has no difficulty in borrowing the necessary money
firom his friends — either relatives who are glad to pay for the
honour of having their kinsman in a" government post, or specu-
lative money-lenders who expect an exorbitant interest. The
amount of the government purchase is enormous ; and when in-
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16 C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race .-
creased by the sums which it is customary for the new officer to
give to his immediate superiors^ the total is something astound-
ing. Men of great family influence^ very distinguish^ scholars^
and those who have performed highly meritorious actions^ often
receive appointments without purchase.
Military appointments are given without purchase and irre-
spective of literary attainments^ and are obtained either by in-
terest or by merit. Men whose fathers are professional thieves,
beggars, slaves, actors, executioners, brothel-keepers, or barbers
are theoretically not eligible for government employment. The
inhibition relates only to the first generation. This, so far as I
know, is, with a single exception, the only symptom of caste in
the empire*.
Mutual dependence of man on man is, in China, carried so far
that even thieves and beggars have their trade-unions, with
boards of management to whom they give an implicit obedience.
This system of almost communism, combined with the genero-
sity of Chinamen towards their relatives, renders, in times of
prosperity, pauperism an unknown thing, and crime (especially
of the violent kind) exceedingly rare. In times of adversity,
however, it is very difierent. Each trade-union can naturally
aid only the members of its own body. Famine and drought
sometimes leave certain villages without any resource but that
of plunder; and those who have been plundered have no other
means of indemnifying themselves for the loss they have sus-
tained than by exercising a similar violence on others ; hence
the disordered state of the empire, since the Government has
not always the monetary resources to relieve the distress as it
arises, nor the military means to suppress the consequence of
that distress. In this respect, our foreign trade has not been
an unmixed blessing. Thousands of Chinamen were thrown out
of employment by the introduction of foreign vessels. One may
reckon that for every 100 tons of foreign shipping employed on
the China coast, 30 Chinese were deprived of their means of
living, and that half of them so deprived became robbers or
insurgents. The introduction of railways into China would
* The exception to which I allude, is formed hy a class of people called
the To'pi, or *^ lazy people.'' These people are not, as is generally helieved,
of Chinese race. Some legends state that they are of Mongol extraction.
They exist in the province of Che-kiang, and may only be barbers, ser-
vants, actors, &c. They are obliged even to button their dresses in a dif-
ferent way from those who have the birthright of freedom. They are
forbidden to marry with respectable people ; and any one taking a wife from
them is for ever polluted, and becomes as one of them. Still this dis-
quaJdfication of the To-]^i holds good only in the Che-kiang province ; for
when they have crossed into other provinces they can merge mto respect-
able citizens.
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create far greater distress ; and I conscientiously believe that the
Chinese government is not as yet capable of coping with the
complications and difiSculties which too sudden an introduction
of railways would occasion. Emigration to the rice-fields of
South America^ and to the unoccupied lands in Africa and
Australia^ together with a good military organization^ wiU^ I be-
lieve, eventually solve the question. The fear of such sudden
distress makes the Government averse to encouraging any
scheme which involves taking a body of men away from the in-
fluence of their family^ and placing them in any position where
a temporary distress might render them desperate ; hence the
discouragement which the Government always shows to work-
ing mines^ and to other enterprises which would vastly increase
the national wealth. Hence^ too^ the Government shows great
readiness to appease popular fury by the sacrifice of an officer
who has given umbrage to the people.
We have thus seen that the sphere of the executive is much
limited by municipal councils, guilds^ and trade-unions^ and
that the officers of the Government are often prevented from
giving effect to arbitrary and unjust measures by the dread of
popular resentment. Great as these checks are on the auto-
cracy of the authorities^ a still greater exists in the closeness of
famOy ties, the enormous power of the head of the household,
the willingness with which his dictates are obeyed by his rela-
tives and dependents, and the readiness with which members of
the same family assist each other. The clannish feeling is so
strong that a wealthy man, instead of hoarding his money, or
spending it in pleasure, takes a pride in maintaining, in various
degrees of dependence and subserviency, a number of followers.
Every shop supports a far greater number of a family than in
England we should imagine possible ; and from the highest guild
down to the lowest trade-union, family interest is required to
get a man admission as a member. The head of the family is
not necessarily what we should call the representative of the
house genealogically ; he is often a cadet who has retrieved the
house^s fortune, and to whom his elder has voluntarily yielded
the precedence. Cadets, too, often leave their own family, and
form a branch family that may in power eclipse the family from
which it has sprung ; but however rich and powerfrd such cadet
may be, and to however low a state the elder may have fallen
(provided there has been no crime or disgrace connected with
the affair), the cadet will always verbally treat his elder as a
superior. In China there exists a system which, I believe, is
peculiar to that country — a system of keeping a Ckia-pu, or
Family Register, in which are entered the names of every mem-
ber, and a short account of their lives. Some of these registers
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18 C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race .*
extend to a thousand volumes ; but they are guarded with such
secrecy that few Europeans^ even those well acquainted with the
Chinese character^ know of their existence. In published trans-
lations of Chinese novels^ the word Chia-pu has been misunder-
stood. I was very anxious to send an account of these Chia-pu
to the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and to place in the Chinese
model house an imitation Chia-pu; but no inducement that
I offered could prevail on any Chinaman to let me have a sight
of one.
If a member of a family has disgraced himself, a family conclave
is held ; and if after repeated warnings there seems no hope of
amendment, his name is solemnly erased from the family regis-
ter, and the motives of his punishment duly recorded. From
this time forth, he is an outcast, can get no respectable employ-
ment, and has either to emigrate, live a life of crime or mendi-
cancy, become a Buddhist priest, or be converted to Christianity.
If his after-life retrieves his character, he is often readmitted
into the family.
Connected with family influence is the position of women. It
is a common mistake regarding this subject to suppose that
women are considered in China mere animals. Nothing, in
fact, can be Airther from the truth. Marriage is fenced about
by ceremonies and observances more stringent and minute than
it is in European countries ; and though a man is allowed nomi-
nally to have as many concubines as he pleases, he is allowed
only one wife, properly speaking. To this wife he is generally
married at the age of sixteen ; and the alliance is usually con-
cluded by the parents of the young people through the means
of a professional matrimonial agent. Theoretically a man has
full power over his wife ; practically she has a father and big
brothers who will not allow her to be ill used. By law, daugh- I
ters of men who have attained the lowest literary grade can only I
be first wives ; but this law is often evaded. The first betrothal
consists of the reception by the family of the bride of a present
from the family of the bridegroom ; but on the ceremony of
marriage a large trousseau and dowry are generally given to the
bride. The husband does not usually interfere with this dowry :
moreover, at the wife's death, her wishes as regards the bestowal
of her dowry generally receive attention. It is disgraceful for
a wife to marry a second time ; a concubine, on the other hand,
is generally a purchased slave, and she incurs no disgrace in
uniting herself to another master, either after the death of her
first master or after her divorce from him. The punishment of
a wife for adultery is far more severe than that of a concubine
for the same crime. Again, husband and wife mutually worship
each other's ancestors.
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their Language, Government, Social Institutions, ifc. 19
Another curious fact with regard to women in China is that
the law compels a father or slave-owner to provide a husband or
husband master for his daughter or female slave before she
arrives at the age of twenty-one years^ unless the girl goes be-
fore a magistrate and declares that she prefers a life of celibacy.
Girls frequently do this, being moved thereto either by religious
motives of Buddhist asceticism, or by believing that in thus
doing what they call Haoh-shUi (or work of supererogation),
they may bring down the blessing of Heaven on their friends,
or, finally, in order that they may live with their parents and be
a succour to them in their old age. Hence, if we except Bud-
dhist nuns, old maids are unknown in the country.
The concubines, as before stated, are generally purchased
slaves; but slavery is not confined to them. The condition of a
slave is modified, first by the fact of the absence of caste in China,
secondly by the slave and master belonging to the same race, and
thirdly by the natural good temper of the Chinese people. The
household drudges of a great family are generally slaves, and in
most cases identify themselves with the interests of their mas-
ter's family, living with them on terms of great intimacy. Field-
labourers are sometimes slaves. Occasionally a childless man
purchases a boy to adopt as his son in order to have some one
who will sacrifice to his spirit after death. Slaves are generally
treated kindly ; and the institution of slavery acts as a great pre-
ventive of infanticide. Connected with slavery, I may be allowed
to mention a curious episode which came under my own obser-
vation. In the course of my ofl&cial work it became my duty to
prosecute an Englishman for extorting money by means of
threats of violence from a poor Chinese family. As collateral
evidence I brought before the Court a pawn-ticket of the same
date as the alleged offence, worded in Chinese as follows :
Foo-SHENO Pawnshop.
June 14th, 1868.
Article Pawned Young girl, 5 years old.
Amount advanced 7 dollars.
Conditions Money to be repaid within
,- ^ , three months, or property
^ * i to vest in pawnbroker.
Child's maintenance to
be paid by borrowers of
the money.
The mother of the family had pawned her own child to obtain
the money needful to satisfy the extortion of the Englishman.
The Chinese are in general a kindly-disposed people, as is
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as
=1
Ah
20 C. T. Gardner— On the Chinese Race :
proved by the great number of their Benevolent Institutions.
Among the chief of these is the Government plan of dissemi-
nating a long moral work called the Sacred Edicts which is an
ethicid discourse on the five cardinal duties between children
and parents^ husband and wife^ senior and junior relatives^
friend and friend^ people and government. By law^ this Sacred
Edict has to be read once a year to aU the subjects of the em-
pire. Again^ Chinese genti^ often subscribe towards printing
and disseminating^ as advertisements^ exhortations to the people
to lead a moral and virtuous life. Buddhists have a regular
Tract Society, for inculcating their tenets.
At Peking some of the empty granaries are put at the dispo-
sal of beggars and the extreme poor as gratuitous lodgings.
In times of famine, the Chinese Government distributes rice
gratuitously. Soup-kitchens are established, and benevolent
merchants and gentry associate to sell food to the poor at cost
price. In times of plague, Government and private individuals
give free theatrical representations and displays of fireworks to
the people, in order to distract their minds. At Pakwan afid
many other places there are free schools. At Hangchow, there
is a hospital for the blind and infirm, with 'their families, con-
taining 2000 inmates, with a statf of forty medical men who
give gratuitous advice and medicine. Free lodging is given;
but the patients are provided with light work in order to pay
for their own food. Societies for the prevention of infanticide
are common all over the empire. These societies both issue
good books and establish foundling hospitals, where the children
of the poor are received. Another institution common to the
empire, with local committees and managing boards, is that for
the burial of the uncoffined dead.
It is notable that there exists a society for collecting waste
paper on which there are any written characters. The Chinese
in their reverence for literature have a superstitious respect for
any thing containing writing. Hence, in every town which I
have visited, there are little boxes, above which is written a
request to the passer-by, asking him to deposit in it any waste
paper that he may be possessed of, bearing written characters,
in order to avoid ^he literature being trampled in the dust.
The Chinese avoid using printed paper as wrappers. Again,
during the late war the Government being greatly straitened
for money on account both of the Tai-ping war and of our ex-
pedition, were urged to the resource of greatly depreciating the
coinage, and issued a quantity of iron cash, which, however, the
people refused to receive, and threw away in quantities. As
on each coin four characters were engraved, a benevolent asso-
ciation started into existence and paid for their collection, in
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their Language, Government, Social Institutions, ^c. 21
order to prevent their being trodden in the mud^ and thus got
together many cartloads of them, which they afterwards melted
into a monument to commemorate the event.
The Chinese Religion shows signs of antiquity similar to those
already seen in its language, government, and institutions. The
worship of ancestors, and the deification of national heroes con-
stitute the religion of all classes. With regard to ancestral
worship, there are evidences to prove that at one time there was
human sacrifice to the manes of the departed. From early
times, figures made of wicker and covered with painted paper
were substituted, and are still in use over the empire, being
burnt at funeral obsequies, with similar images representing
horses, mules, carriages, &c. These are supposed to afford at-
tendants to the deceased, suited to his rank in the next world ;
and gilt and silvered paper made up in the form of specie (i. e.
shoes of sycee) being burnt in a similar manner, are supposed
to give him the means of keeping up state, bribing the infernal
judges, and so forth. Among the more intelligent natives of
the present day these usages are practised only because dictated
by all-powerful custom ; while the ignorant still believe in their
efficacy. Again, the Chinese believe that all disease is caused
by maleficent spirits of departed men, who, having no posterity
to offer sacrifices, and yet possessing the same need of food as
when sojourners on earth, are compelled, vampyre-like, to prey
upon the health of the living. Hence the Chinese have insti-
tuted a yearly service called the Foo-ying-k'ow, or " appeasing
the burning mouths.''
Confucianism, commonly called a religion, is in reality merely
a system of ethics. The grand master, chief of conservatives,
would not interfere with the religion sanctioned by custom;
and as his mind was too intelligent to believe in its fables, he
careftdly abstained from discussing them in his precepts, though
invariably adopting the customary rites in his practice.
Buddhism, which has a greater power to adapt itself to cir-
cumstances than even Roman Catholicism, has, instead of trying
to make a tabula rasa of former creeds, simply reared a super-
structure, and only endeavoured to engraft its legends, morals,
and philosophy on the ancient stock ; hence, in a measure, its
great success. Its hard dogmas are not preached to any but
the adepts. To the ignorant, a material heaven and hell is
spoken of, the latter with all the apparatus of torture used in
the Chinese prisons. Nor in this matter are mere words em-
ployed : in many of the Buddhist temples are rooms with
painted figures representing the punishment of the wicked in
the next world. Pictures of these are sold, and, coming to Eng-
land under the name of " Chinese punishments," have tended.
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22 C. T. Gardner— 0« the Chinese Race :
more than any thing else^ to disseminate the idea that the Chi-
nese are a cruel people.
Mahomedanism and Christianity^ by demanding a renuncia*
tion of superstitious practices dear to the Chinese^ have had as
yet only a limited influence. But it may be observed that, un-
derlying all belief in a multiplicity of gods and deified heroes,
there has ever been a notion, more or less vague, of a Supreme
Being {'Pien), who, when made a subject of thought, has been
sometimes confounded with nature, but sometimes also regarded
as a personal being — ^a hearer and answerer of prayer.
So much for the past and present of the Chinese people. It
is not difficult to prophesy their future. Inch by inch they are
disputing possession of new worlds with the Auglo-saxon race.
Their industry, economy, and, above all, their clannishness
make them formidable competitors with us in the labour-
market. Probably this competition will end in a compromise.
John Chinaman will occupy to himself the torrid regions, but
will be found utterly unsuited to work in cold climates — ^not
from lack of industry, but from lack of energy. The frigid
zones will, I think, be monopolized by the Saxon race, who
have plenty of energy, perseverance, and endurance, but not so
much patience as is possessed by the Chinese.
APPENDIX.
I. On Chinese Mythological and Legendary History.
Native legends state that in the beginning of the world China
was governed for several millions of years by a great number
of princes. The first was Pan-ku, or Huen-tun, the Chinese
first man. Then came the Tien-Hwang, or Celestial King, with
thirteen successors, each of whom reigned 18,000 years. These
were followed by the Ti- Hwang, or Earthly King, with eleven
successors, each of whom reigned 18,000 years. Next came
Jen-Hwang, or Human King, with nine successors, reigning,
some say, 1,100,760 years, whilst others say 90,000. After
the Jen- Hwang and his successors came the Emperor Yu-chao
(the name signifying ''he that hath a nest^'). In his time
men were in a stage of savagery, eating fruits and raw animal
food. Yu-chao taught them to make huts of the branches
of trees and of leaves. The next Emperor, Sui-jfen (or " firc-
by-friction man''), observed in hut-building that wood was
combustible, and taught men to cook their food, instead of eat-
ing it raw ; he also taught them a system of writing by tying
knots in string at different distances. The lengths of the reign
of Yu-chao and Sui-jSn are, as may be expected, a disputed
point. Next came Fo-hi, who is said to have invented the
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
their Language^ Government , Social Institutions, Sfc, 23
Pa-kwa (or eight symbols) previously given (p. 5), to have dis-
covered the existence and use of metals and also of musical in-
struments, to have instituted marriage, to have divided the
Chinese into one hundred family-names, to have forbidden mar-
riages between persons of the same family-name (a law which
still exists), and to have invented a system of chronology of
cycles of sixty years — ^a system even now existing among the
Chinese : a key to this system, made by myself, and a compara-
tive table with the Christian era, compiled by Mr. Mayers, will be
found in Appendix II. But the most wonderful work attributed
to Fo-hi was the design for a written language — ^namely, that
all writing should be composed of a picture of Sui-jSn's knotted
string and his own eight symbols, and that they should be
formed according to six rules coinciding with the six divisions
into which, as I have stated, the Chinese divided their written
characters.
With Fo-hi commences exactitude of dates ; thus Fo-hi is said
to have reigned from 2953 to 2838 b.c, or 115 years, commen-
cing from &22 years ago. Fo-hi also instituted religious cere-
monies, such as sacrifices, and extended the Chinese dominion
from Shansi to Honan and Shantung. After Fo-hi came Yenti
or Shen-nung ; he set apart peculiar places for sacrifice, removed
the capital to Shantung, instituted the use of wheat, rice, peas,
&c., and discovered what plants were poisonous and their anti-
dotes. In his reign first arose rebellions and wars, and he accord-
ingly demanded military service from his subjects. He is said
to have reigned from 2838 to 2698 b.c, or 140 years, and was
finally deposed by Hsien-yuan, also called Hwang-ti and Yew-
hsiung, whose acts were as follow : — ^the invention, by a subject,
of 540 characters made in the form of bird^s claws, and of other
characters called the ^^ tadpole-head characters /' the institution
of punishment by public decapitation ; the invention of brick-
making; the builc[Lng temples and palaces; the use of bows,
arrows, military standards, &c. ; the invention of a new musical
instrument ; and the discovery of copper. In his reign, silk-
weaving and textile fabrics were introduced, as also the use of
carts and carriages on rollers. He established a tribunal of his-
torians— some to write down facts, and others to report speeches.
He divided the then existing empire into chow of 860,000
families ; each chow comprised 10 sze of 36,000 families each,
each sze 10 tu of 3600 families, each tu 10 y o{ 360 families,
each y 5 /t of 72 families, each li 3 pong of 24 families,
and each pong 3 tin of 8 families. His astronomers disco-
vered the fact that 19 solar years contained 235 lunar months.
In his time state-robes were first used. After a reign of 100
years (2698 b.c to 2598 b.c), he was succeeded by his son
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
24 • C. T. Gardner— On the Chinese Race :
Shao-hao^ who is said to have instituted the present prevailing
custom that civil mandarins should wear on their dress the
figure of a bird^ and military mandarins that of a beast : the prac-
tice of sorcery and magic commenced in this reign. Shao-hao
reigned 84 years (2598 b.c. to 2514 b.c.)j and was succeeded by
Chwan-hu^ a grandson of Hwang-ti, who reigned 78 years, fix)m
2514 to 2437 b.c The only thing important to note in this reign
is that it is said that the existing custom that makes the Em-
peror the intermedium between heaven and the people was now
first introduced. To him succeeded Ti-ku, or Kao-sin, grandson
of Shao-hao, and great-grandson of Hwang-ti. It was he who
first established public collies : he reigned 70 years, from 2437
to 2367 B.C. Poems said to have been written in his reign are
preserved in Chinese classics. After Kao-sin succeeded Ti-chih,
who reigned 9 years, 2367 to 2358, after whom came Yao*,
who was a son of Kao-sin : born ten months after the death of
the father, by an immaculate conception, he was exposed on the
mountain by his mother, who feared a charge of incontinence ;
but he was spared, nay, succoured, by the wild animals of the
forest.
Chinese history up to this time I imagine to be mythologic,
an attempt as it were to account for the existence of the human
race generally — ^though of course occasional traits of national
ideosyncrasy show themselves, and national pride has fixed
upon known localities as the theatre of the different events said
to have occurred. It is for others, better acquainted than I am
with the early myths of mankind, to state whether any analogy
can be found between these myths and those of other nations.
We now come to the Chinese legendary history : — Yao from
2357 to 2255, Shun from 2255 to 2205, and Yu from 2205
to 2197 — a period in all of 160 years. To other previous
emperors, Chinese history had ascribed the invention of nearly
all the great material appliances and customs in use up to
the time of Confucius. While, therefore, history preceding the
time of Yao describes the deeds of rulers, after Yao to Yu
we have instead of deeds their moral discourses. There is a
notable exception to this rule in the fact that to Yao, Shun,
and Yu (especially the latter) is ascribed the clearing of the
primaeval forest of Shan-hsi, Shen-hsi, and Honan to as far
south as Shao-hsing in the province of Ch£-kiang, Now,
Other chronologists give : —
Fo-hi B.c. 2862-2737
Shen-nung. . B.C. 2737-2697
Hrien-yuan B.C. 2697-2697
Shao-hao . . b.c. 2697-2613
Chwan-hu. . B.C. 2613^2435
Kao-sin B.C. 2435-2365
Ti-chih B.C. 2366-2367
Yao B.C. 2357-2266
Shun B.C. 2256-2206
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
their Language, Government , Social Institutions, 8fC/ 25
though we may not credit all that Chinese historians have said
of Yu, and though works which must necessarily have occupied
many centuries are by the Chinese said to have been executed in
the reigns of Yao, Shun, and Yu, yet the existence of Yu
is an undoubted fact. An inscription containing his very
words, and probably also the fac simile of the characters in
which those words were written, is still existing; but it is a
noteworthy fact that the mountains therein mentioned as the
scene of his labours are all in Shan-hsi, a province in the
north-west of China, bordering upon Artous Mongolia, anciently
called Serica. These four mountains are situated between 40^
and 32° N. lat., and 108"* and 114"* E. long. We may therefore
reasonably condude that the colonization of the southern pro-
vinces and the clearing of the primaeval forests were effected
after the time of Yu. Two things are worth mentioning— one
being that before the time of Yu the monarchy was elective.
Yu, however, was the founder of the first Chinese dynasty ; and
nineteen of his descendants sat on the throne. Again, an;er the
time of Yu we have no account of kings living and reigning
beyond the number of years that modem experience shows to be
probable. Close upon Yu's time, too, was the first eclipse re-
corded by the Chinese, viz. that which took place b.c. 2127.
From these records I think we may not unreasonably make
the following hypotheses : — First, at some time before 2300 b.c.
colonists with some civilization, such as the art of writing in a
rudimentary form, existed or came to the north-west of China;
and, secondQy, these colonists were not in a sufficiently civilized
state to preserve any records or even legends available for his-
toric uses earlier than the time of Yu, say 2250 b.c, at which
date they must have been a long time in the country, as no le-
gends are in existence showing how they first arrival. If we
allow that the human race is of a common origin, it is an inter-
esting problem to determine when the Chinese first separated
firom the common stock, and whether the Tolboth Beni Noah
throws any light on the subject. While we take lat. 40° and
long. 108° as the principal point of ingress of the Chinese race
into their present country, we must remember that it is proba-
bly not the only point of ingress, but it is in all likelihood the
most ancient, and the only one where we can fix an approximate
date, viz. fix)m b.c 2800 to b.c 2300.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
26
C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race :
II. On Chinese Time.
m
(YiH Chow.)
A cycle of sixty years.
Ten Heavenly Characters,
a*bcdefghij
Twelve Earthly Characters.
1
m
p q
Year of
Year of
Year of
Year of
Year of
Year of
Year of
Cycle.
Cycle.
Cycle.
Cycle.
Cycle.
Cycle.
Cycle.
1 ak
11 au
21 as
81 a q
41 a 0
51 am
1 ak
2 bl
12 bv
22 bt
32 br
42 bp
52 bn
8 cm
13 ck
23 cu
38 C8
43 cq
53 CO
4 dn
14 dl
24 dv
34 dt
44 dr
54 dp
5 eo
15 e m
25 ek
35 eu
45 es
65 e q
6 f p
16 fn
26 fl
36 fv
40 ft
56 fr
'M
17 go
18 hp
27 gm
28bn
87frk
38 hi
47 pu
48 hv
67 ffs
68 It
9i8
19 iq
29 io
39 im
49 ik
59 iu
10 jt
20 jr
30jp
40 j n
60jl
60 jv
SuppoBing the system of cycles to have existed in 4004 b.c. (which
it did notf), that year would have been the fourteenth of the cycle ;
thence it is easy to find out any date, as the first year of the cycle
would fall as follows : —
Female.
Male and
Female.
Male and
Female in
conjmiction.
No Gender.
Mal&
B.C. 4017
8957
8897
3837
8777
8717
3657
8697
3537
3477
3417
3357
3297
3237
3177
8117
8057
2997
2937
2877
2817
2767
2697
2637
2677
2517
2467
2397
2337
2277
2217
2167
2097
2037*
1977
1917
1857
1797
1737
1677
1617
1567
1497
1437
1377
1317
1267
1197
1137*
1077
1017
957
897
837
777
717
667
697
637
477
417
367
297
237
177
117
57
A.D.4
* The letters are given only to denote the order.
t Either 2037 B.C. or 1737 b.c was probably the commencement of the
Cycle.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
their Language y Government y Social Institutions, Ifc. 27
The year 1 a.d. is the fifty-eighth year of cycle ; the first year Mis
as follows : —
Male Axid
female in
conj unction.
No
Gender.
Male.
Female.
Male and
Female.
A.D.4
804
604
004
1204
1604
1804
64
364
664
964
1264
1564
1864
124
424
724
1024
1324
1624
1924
184
484
784
1084
1884
1684
1984
244
544
844
1144
1444
1744
2044
By denoting gender
of cycle of 60 years
the Chinese educe a
cycle of 300 years.
The present year, 1870, is consequently the seventh year of cycle
without gender. It is interesting to observe that in the cycle in
Tibet, 1870 is the fifth, not the seventh year of cycle ; that is, a
discrepancy of two years has crept in between- tne Chinese and
Tibetan cycles.
JSjeg to Animal identified with gears of Cycle, or Cgcle of
twelve gears.
I
13
25
37
49
year of cycle,
a mouse.
2
14
26
38
50
ff fj
ox.
3
15
27
39
51
f* n
tiger.
4
16
28
40
62
ff f}
hare.
5
17
29
41
63
V V
dragon.
6
18
30
42
54
»> *j
serpent.
7
19
31
43
55
ft ij
horse.
8
20
32
44
56
}} Ji
sheep.
9
21
33
45
57
9f n
ape.
10
22
34
46
58
9} yt
bird.
11
23
35
47
59
it tf
dog.
12
24
36
48
60
99 99
hog.
Having thus mentioned the formation of cycles, I proceed to the
formation of the year. This consists, in China, of twelve lunar
months of alternately, or nearly alternately, twenty-nine and thirty
days ; hence new moon always rails on the Ist of the month, and fuU
moon on the 15th or 16th. To approximate lunar to solar time,
seven intercalary months are added m the course of nineteen years.
The month is aivided into three periods — the first ten days, second
ten days, third nine or ten days according to the leujc^th of the
month. The division of time into weeks of seven davs is unknown
in China. It is evident, from what I have stated above, that 235
lunar months make nearly nineteen years ; hence the Chinese have
235 astronomical names of months, which names are used in judicial
astrology, and form two of the eight characters exchanged in the
ceremony of marriage.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
28 C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race,
Discussion.
Thk President referred to the similarity between certain Chinese
customs and those of the Polynesians, such as the exclusion of a
word occurring in the name of a great chief. In like manner, the
prohibition of marriage between persons of the same surname is a
custom common to the Chinese and the Australians. He alluded to
the popular but erroneous notion that the Chinese were physicallr
identical with the Mongols, and pointed to the fact that althoura
both had long black hair on the head, and only scanty hair on the
face, yet the Chinese had a long skull, with fairly developed brow-
' ridges, whilst the Central Asiatic had a broad skull deficient in
brow-ridges.
Capt. 8HERARD Osborne, E.N., said that he was not competent
to pass an opinion upon any of the points alluded to in the paper
beyond that of the social organization of the Chinese people. On
that point Mr. Gardner's paper appeared to him a very perfect pho-
tograph of the condition of a race that had attempted to extend the
patriarchal and plirental system, which serves to control a family, to
the government of 400 millions of people. That it was a success he
disputed, though it might be interesting and strange. The Chinese
systems of education, morality, and government were incapable of
meeting the wants of to-day, or of securing the progression and hap-
piness of that mighty people in their inevitable contact with Euro-
pean civilization. Mr. Gardner bore somewhat hard on the effect
which contact with a superior civilization had produced on the con-
dition of the Chinese race, and had depreciated that progress which
was as inevitable as it was good. Capt. Osborne joined issue with
him there, Chinese civilization and self-government were of them-
selves incapable of progress beyond a certain point, which seemed to
be reached about every 200 years, when there was a general up-
heaving of the masses, horrible rebellions, and frightful destruction
of human beings. Then the land relapsed into a state of torpor,
and peace reigned again in China. Such had been her past history.
The remedy for this was, no doubt, Emigration ; but whence came
that new institution ? When the speaker first went to China, thirty
years ago, it was death by the laws of the country for the poorest
creature to emigrate. They are wiser now ; but thanks to whom ?
why, to European example and English pressure. So with all else we
offer them. The steamship they have already accepted. The railway
and engineering talent of Europe is just what China now most needs.
They are excellent in aU that they have put their hand to, and
the speaker knew no limit to what the people, unhampered by their
wretched government and laws, were capable of becoming. In front
of them, across the Pacific, lay land whither they were going in tens
of thousands. Around them on every side were countries wild and
hostile, which they had already colonized or would shortly. As
colonists their powers of self-government, and the ease with which
they formed petty organizations, were, in such wild lands as Borneo
and Malaya, a great advantage against the idle and hostile races
which they were superseding. It was there, as compared with wild
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Discussion. 29
Malays and savage Dyaks, that the Chinese system of goyemment
shone ; but it would not bear comparison with even tlie worst of
European rule for large communities in modem days.
It nad been said that the introduction of railways near Shangai
wotdd throw thousands of Chinamen out of employ, and perhaps
drive them to become mere banditti ; but Capt. Osborne repied bv
referring to the great inundations of the Yellow River, through which
it had been computed that many millions of Chinese had been either
starved or driven to beggary. European engineering skill, if in-
troduced, would probably have averted these inundations, and would
thus have saved all these unfortunate beings.
Mr. BowLAi^D Hamiltok, in reference to Capt. Osborne's re-
marks that the rebellions of the Chinese were caused by the want
of any means of subsistence being found for the people in case of any
great catastrophe, stated that, in 1859, one of the worst of the rebel-
lions (that of the so-called Nienfi, who ravaged Shantung speciallv)
was understood to have arisen from the abandonment of the works
to retain the Hwang-Ho after they had been carried away by a great
inundation. Some 30,000 people were then said to have been thus
thrown out of employment ; and no other means of gaining a sub-
sistence were open to them, nor were there any imperid^or pro-
vincial resources applicable to meeting so great an evil : hence the
wretched people had no other means of saving their lives than by
plundering the neighbouring cities. He believed that two great
evils in China were the want of a ** Poor Law," and inadequate tax-
ation. For any great disaster beyond the newer of private or local
benevolence, there were no means of remedy provided by the law ;
and as regarded taxation, though no doubt the people paid heavily,
yet no adequate amount ever came to the genend or imperial trea-
sury.
The moral state of the people showed a marked coincidence with
this social condition. The feeling of fidelity to the village or guild
was very strong ; but the conscience of the people did not rise to the
perception of Uieir hisher duties to the state or to its courts of law.
W ith a vast extent of empire, showing many excellencies in detail,
there was no power, moral or material, to meet great difficulties or to
bring imperial resources to meet imperial necessities.
The Eev. Prof. Suhmsbs expressed his opinion that if the language
of China were viewed apart from the written characters by which it
was expressed, and then compared with the languages of the neieh-
bouring nations, some common points of resemblance would be dis-
covered, especially in the construction of phrases and sentences, as
well as in the forms of words and idioms. The Chinese language
was more worthy of the attention of the philologist than it was
generally deemed to be ; and in this opinion the speaker was borne
out by the assertion of a very learned Sanskrit scholar, who be-
lieved that Chinese should form the basis and starting-point of
philological study. With regard to the similarity of constructions,
be found resemblances between the Chinese and Tibetan, and even
the Sanskrit.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
80 C. T. Gardner — On the Chinese Race.
Mr. Htde Clabkb said be felt bound to differ from bis friend
Mr. Hunter aa to tbe bjpotbesis tbat tbe Chinese is tbe original
language from wbicb tbe Aryan languages bave been practicallj
denved. It was necessary to be particularly cautious in draw-
ing conclusions of this kind ; for tbere is no language wbicb will
not offer suggestions of similarity witb otbers. IGs learned friend
Prof. Summers bad naturally referred to tbose wbicb be bad found
between Cbinese and tbe Aryan languages. He bimself bad found
remarkable coincidences between Osmanli Turkisb and Englisb ;
but no one could suppose tbat eitber language bad exercised an in-
fluence on the other in these details.
Mr. Ghu^ner had referred in bis paper to an interesting subject —
tbe relation of tbe Cbinese characters to those of the other ancient
nations ; and be might have added examples from the cuneiform, thus
extending tbe field of relationship. At the same time the propagation
and distribution of ideographic and phonetic signs bave no necessary
connexion witb any affinity of language as between the Cbinese and
any other stock ; nor do they justify the impression that the Cbinese
were tbe inventors, since they perhaps received them from another
and an earlier race. On tbe other nand, they do not prove that
ideographic writing was obtained by all the nations at one common
centre, because the earlier systems of writing were most likely
propagated from nation to nation, as at a later period the Phos-
nician alphabet is said by tradition to have been communicated by
Cadmus to the Greeks. Tbe distribution of tbe system of writing
is a comparatively late ethnological phenomenon, one much posterior
to tbat of any community of language.
The President had referred to illustrations of corresponding facts
to those adduced by Mr. Gardner; and such must be famiBar to
all of them. He had witnessed many such instances on tbe other
side of Asia ; and even details like the applications of names and the
influence of women bad their parallel in the Osmanli and other
eastern empires. We bad a recent instance of tbe literary name in
tbe case of our visitor, the late Puad Pasha, Euad being the literary-
name. Such illustrations might be multiplied. While making this
observation, wbicb goes chiefly to this extent — ^that a similar state of
society, or of circumstances, will often bring about similar institu-
tions, it must nevertheless be borne in mind, as a practical result of
ethnological teaching, tbat tbe government of a country must be
conducted in relation to tbe habits and customs of tbe natives. In
this respect such researches as tbose of Mr. Gardner, and the dis-
cussions wbicb they receive at tbe hands of men of science, are of
particular value in their bearing on the art of government, and in
our diplomatic and commercial relations with various races. Of this
influence the Government of India is showing evidence, and tbe ex-
ertions of Mr. Hunter, Mr. Gardner, and otbers, all contribute to a
better understanding.
Mr. Clarke remarked tbat be bad observed linguistic afflnities
between tbe languages of tbe S6urs and tbe Thugs of India and
tbose of the Koriaks, &c., and also between tbose of the Japanese and
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Dr. Leitner — On the Races and Languages of Dardistan, 31
Loo-Chooans and the Tamil group. If these be true, then the
Chinese, as intrusive on their intervening area, will be later in time,
and their descent irom the Tibeto- Chinese centre comparatively late,
and perhaps within the historic period. In such case they may have
inherited the civilization of earlier occupants. They would occupy
in China a position corresponding to that of the Aryans in India.
Ordinary Meeting, November 28rd^ 1869.
Professor Huxley, LL.D., F.B.S., President, in the Chair.
New Member. — ^Major-General Alexander Cunningham.
Dr. Leitner exhibited a portion of his collection of objects of
ethnological interest from Dardistan and Tibet. He then made
a verbal communication on the Dards^ of which the following is
an abstract : —
III. On the Races and Languages of Dardistan.
By Dr. G. W. Leitner, M.A.
The author commenced by giving an account of his tour in 1866^
which extended from the beginning of May to the last week in
October. During this period he passed through Lahul^ Zans-
kar, Ladak^ Little Tibet, Kashmir, Astor, and Ghilghit. Find-
ing the ordinary passes closed, he discovered with much difficulty
a passage into Ladak through Lahul and Zanskar by crossing
the Shingun and Marang, instead of by following the usual route
by the Bara-lacha and the Lachalung. He thus reached Ladak
in the middle of May, one month before the arrival of the post,
and long before the passes are considered open.
In visiting the Abbot of Pugdal in Zanskar, Dr. Leitner found
him willing to undertake the safe conveyance of any European
to and from Lassa. It was in the huge cavern-monastery of
Pugdal that the Hungarian, Csoma de Coros, spent five years as
a lama in order to learn Tibetan. Among the good effects of
his life here, may be mentioned the abolition of the use of the
prayer- wheel.
Dr. Leitner referred to the exertions of the Maharajah of Kash-
mir in promoting the advance of Hindooism, a fact opposed to
the general idea that this faith is never proselytizing. During
this tour the author discovered a people called the Brokhpd, of
pure Aryan origin and traditions, living side by side with the
Tibetans.
As the Maharajah of Kashmir held some Chilasi prisoners, it
was considered by the Punjab Government that the services of
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
82 Dr. Leitner — On Dardistan,
Dr. Leitner, when in Kashmir, might be utilized for the purpose
of collecting information regarding these people. It was sug-
gested that there might be some connexion between Chilas and
the Kaylus or Olympus of the Hindoo gods. Failing, however,
to obtain the required information in Kashmir, Dr. Leitner felt
it to be his duty to cross the frontier, although the country was
then engaged in war with Kashmir. He accordingly advanced
to Ghilghit, thus going four marches beyond the furthest point
previously attained by any European traveller. In this way he
dispelled the illusion regarding the inaccessibility of Dardistan,
or the country lying between Khagan and the Hindoo- Koosh.
The Dards inhabiting this country were previously regarded as a
ferocious people, and even as cannibals. They are a remnant
of an ancient and pure Aryan race; and their languages were
probably spoken long before Sanskrit was developed into the
language of literature.
A great exception, however, is to be found in the Khajunah
(the language spoken by the people of Hunza and Nagyr), which
apparently bears no resemblance to any other known language.
The only attempt at inflection consists in certain prefixed gut-
turals. It would seem, however, that the verb to be resembles
an Aryan form; but it may have been introduced at a late
period. The Hunza people speaking this language are known
as the mountain-robbers of Kunjut.
Although the Dards have no written character, they have pre-
served orally, in songs and stories, some most interesting frag-
ments of history and mythology. Dr. Leitner concluded by
reading a Dardu legend which he had committed to writing,
and which professed to give an historical account of the origin
of Ghilghit. In this legend it was stated that a race, believed to
be aborigines, were once ruled over by a monster who indulged
in cannibalism. At a certain time three fairies appeared on a
mountain, and ultimately delivered Ghilghit from the oppressor.
After his death, an annual festival was held in commemoration
of the deliverance.
Discussion.
The Presidskt inquired as to the physical characters of the Siah-
p6sh Kafirs, who haid been described as a fair-haired, blue-eyed
people. The author replied that they were certainly &irer than the
Kashmirs, and that one of the Kafir youths who stayed with him had
blue eyes.
Mr. Trxlawitt Sa-UNDSRs was desirous of obtaining some infor-
mation on the natural conditions of these Ghilghit valleys, especially
of the north-eastern branch, including Bunza and Nagar or Nagayr.
The latter valley was often alluded to by the name of Kunjut, espe-
cially with reference to the depredations made by its people upon
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Discussion. 33
carayana trading to Yarkand from Badakshan on the west and Ladak
on the south.
It is remarkable that, although Kunjut is surrounded by peaks
25,000 feet in height, it is occupied by a permanent population ;
while at the same time the adjoining valleys on tbe east, which form
a part of the Shigar basin, are filled by the most formidable glaciers.
The Biafo glacier was found, by Captain Godwin- Austen, extending
from the frontier of Nagyr eastward for fifly miles. The causes of
these distinctions have yet to be explained.
It was with great pleasure that Mr. Saunders had heard of the
willingness of the Lama Abbot of the monastery of Pugdal in Zan-
skar to enable a qualified European to reach Lassa. Having in
view the promotion of negociations at Peking for the removal of the
absolute prevention bv the Chinese Ghovemment of European inter-
course between Britisn India and the Chinese dominions, Mr. Saun-
ders regarded such an exercise of the Lama's influence as highly desi-
rable, and deserving of the attention of Q-overnment.
Mr. ErvENQToir begged to be allowed to speak on the subject of
his frient Mr. Cooper's journey through China into Tibet. Me had
the pleasure of seeing ]S£r. Cooper at Hong £on&; after his return,
and understood that, furnished with passes from the Chinese author-
ities, he met with no opposition from the Maudarins to the prosecu-
tion of his journey through China ; but after leaving Chma and
Penetrating into Tibet, he was robbed and turned back by the
'ibetans; upon his return through China he met with kindness
from the Chinese. British subjects, he believed, found no difficulty
in obtaining the requisite passes, which enabled them to travel through
China with few obstacles from the authorities ; but were passes to
be obtained from Peking authorizing British subjects to travel in
Tibet, it is considered very doubtful whether they would thereby
be rendered secure from hindrance and ill-usage at the hands of tribes
only nonunally subject to the Chinese Emperor.
Mr. Htde Clajslke confirmed the statements of Dr. Leitner, that,
as far as his own investigations had gone, there are no known conge-
ners of Khajunah ; and he agreed with him that the verb '' to be " was
not Aryan, but that the resemblance was casual. The numerals in
many groups, as in the Indo-European, the Semitic, and the Malay,
are typical and can be traced through each member of the group ;
but in the TJgro-Tatar this Ib not the case, and there is more than one
type of numerals. This may be the case with the Khajunah, which
possibly belongs to some group in which the numerals are un-
conformable. With regard to the other leading radicals, he hoped he
should not be misunderstood when he stated that they appeared to
bear some resemblance to Yenisseian. In the case of a member dis-
severed at a very andent period, the variations of type are always
found to be considerable. A very interesting question for investiga-
tion is whether there is any ethnological connexion between the
Khajunah and the Dardi stocks, and, in such case, whether the Dardi
tribes have not lost the Khajunah language and assumed the later
Aryan.
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34 Dr. Lkitner — On Dardisian,
Br. Campbell said that through Dr. Leitner's kindness he had
been enabled to inspect the whole of his collection at the India
Office, of which a small portion only was then exhibited. It ap-
peared to him that the articles of clothing and of domestic use
clearly indicated that they belonged to a Tibetan people, and that
the symbols of religious worship were decidedly Buddhistic. This
was worthy of note, as the great body of the people in Ghilghit, Chi-
tral, and Chilas were described by Munphool Pundit in 1867, and by
Dr. Leitner himself, as Mahomedans of tne Sunni and Shia sects. Dr.
Campbell greatly regretted that General Cunningham (whose account
of Ladak and I)ardistan had been frequently referred to by Dr.
Leitner) was not present ; but Munphool Pundit's report was valuable
as confirming Dr. Leitner's account of the country and people ho
had visited*. Begarding the Siah-Posh Kafirs, said by the Pundit
to have blue eyes, ruddy complexion, and fair hair. Dr. Leitner hesi-
tated to give his assent. Sir Alexander Bumes, who described the
Kafirs in 1831, saw one boy only of this remarkable tribe ; " his com-
plexion, hair, and features were quite European, his eyes were of a
bluish colour," and *' some of his words were Indian." 9o that in
respect of language Dr. Leitner's account agreed with Bumes's.
Dr. Leitner laid great stress on the advancement of Hindooism
in Dardistan, and on the authoritative efforts of the Maharajab of
Kashmir to spread his own religion in that country, and he depre-
cated the Maharajah's action in this direction. Dr. Campbell was
quite familiar with a similar advancement of quasi-Hindooism in
Nipal, where the Government was strictly Hindoo, and all classes had
to look to Hindoos as the sources of honour and preferment. Among
the various tribes of Nipal who are not Hindoos there is a constant
increase of Hindoo observances in religion and social usages, although
no forcible means are ever used to produce it.
Dr. Campbell was greatly pleased to hear the flattering tribute
paid by Dr. Leitner to the memory of the late Csoroa de Cords.
The speaker knew De Cords well ; there never was a more modest
and single-minded man, or a more devoted scholar. He came to
Darjeeling as his last hope of getting to Lassa ; but on his way there
from Assam he caught jungle-fever and died. Dr. Campbell said
he should have great pleasure in communicating what Ih*. Leitner
had said of De Coros to his fellow townsmen of Pesth, where his
memory was held in great veneration.
Dr. Leitner did not believe in the stories of cannibalism told of
some of the tribes of Dardistan ; and they might not be true ; but as
it appeared, from the historical account he had read of the foundation
of a new dynasty in Ghilghit on the destruction of a tyrant and
cannibal ruler, that there was some slight foundation for them,
Dr. Campbell said it was not surprising that the charge had come
down to present times.
• [An Extract from this Report follows the Discuasion. — Sub-Ed.]
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MuNPHOoL Pundit — On Gilffit, Chitral, and Kashmir. 85
The following Extract from a Communicatiou by Munphool
Pundit to the Political Department, India Office, 1867, is printed
by permission of Dr. A. Campbell*.
Relations between GUgit, Chitral, and Kashmir.
Oilgit is a small mountainous country, traversed by a river of that
name and lying to the south of the Kara Koram, or Trans-Thibetan
range, on the right bank of the Indus.
It is about 100 miles lon^ from north to south, with a mean
breadth of 26 miles. Its area is therefore about 2500 square milesf.
Tasin, a subdivison of Chitral-bala (Upper Chitral), borders on
Gilgit in the west, Hunza and Nagri in the north and north-east,
Danl (Chelas and Hasura or Astor across the Indus) in the south
and south-east, and Balti in the east.
The Gilgit river is one of the principal mountain feeders of the
Indus. Its upper course is formed of two principal branches, the
Tasin and Parasot rivers. The former rises in north latitude 87°
and east^longitude 73°, at the point where the Kara Koram merges
into the Hindu-kush. The source of the Parasot is in 36° 10' north
latitude and 72° 40' east longitude, on the eastern face of the range
which gives rise to the Chitral or Kunar river. After a separate
course of 75 miles each, the two streams join above Eoshan, in lati-
tude 36° 20' and longitude 73° 30', and take an easterly course for
25 miles to Gkk)kuch, where they are joined by the Chatarkun river
from the north. Thence to the town of Gilgit its course is east-
south-east for 50 miles, below which it receives the joint tribute of
the Hunza-Nagri rivers. It continues the same course for about
30 miles further, to its junction with the Indus, below the defile of
Makpon-i-Shang-Bong. The general direction of the stream is to
the east-south-east, and its whole length not less than 180 miles.
The minimum discharge is probably 2(W0 cubic feet, or even morej.
The valleys in Gilgit are : — Gilgit in the south and south-west,
Chaprot in the north, Bakrot in the east, and Sai and Gor in the
south-east, &c. And the forts or walled habitations : — in the north,
Barr, Badlus, Chaprot, Chalat, and Nummul, along the right bank of
the Hunza river ; in the north-west, Bargu, Shakeyot, and Sherot, in
the Gilgit valley, the largest in the counhy, in the direction of Fayal
and Yasin; in the south, Gilgit, Danyur, Naupur, Shakwar, and
Manor ; in the south-east, Nanrot, Chakarkot, Jagote, Domat, Sai,
and Got ; in the east. Sanagahr, Bakrot, Hamusal, Ziaj, <&c.
The people of Gilgit are Shia Musalmans ; and the whole country
is now supposed to contain not more than 1000 houses.
Its produce in grain and fruits, viz. rice, barley, apples, pomegra-
nates, apricots, walnuts, peaches, figs, and grapes, barely suffices for
home consumption.
• [This document is reprinted without anyattempt to reconcile the spjelling
of proper names with that followed in Dr. Leitner^s communication. —
SuB-lSt).]
t Cunningham's 'Ladakh/ p. 3d. X ^&^- PP- ^, ^^^
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86 MuNPHooL Pundit — On GVffii,
Gilgit is 22 marches distant from Kashmir (the road between the
two places lying in a north-westerly direction, through Hasura aud
Bunji, old dependencies of Kashmir), 8 from Yasin, 4 from Gaokuch
(chief place in Payal, an old dependency of Yasin), 22 from Kashkaro
(capital of Lower Chitral), ana 6 from Daril.
Hunza (also called Kunjut) and ^aefri, two small Shia districts,
adjoining Gilgit in the north and north-east, and lying along the
opposite banks of the Hunza river, are ruled by two different Chiefs,
IL&jas Ghazanfar and Zahid Jafar, at variance with each other, who,
as the following narrative will show, are closely mixed up with the
question of the Gilgit frontier. Hunza is supposed to contain 1500
nouses, and Nagri about 4000* : —
The country of Chitral, divided into Upper (bala)and Lower (payan),
and held by two different branches of an ancient family of rulers, is
bounded on the north and north-west by the Hindu-kush range (con-
tinuation of the Trans-Thibetan or Kara Koram range), which divides
it from the Pamer steppes in the north, and the Wakhan, Zebak, and
Sanglich districts of Badakhshan in the north-west ; west and south-
west by Kafiristan ; south by the Pranshi (Laspur) range of moun-
tains ; east by Gilgit and the wild independent tracts of mountainous
country known by the provincial names of Shanaki and Kohistan —
the former (Shanaki) comprising the districts of Hodar, Dodshal,
Gibrial, Daril, Tandr, Komi, Palas, <S:;c., inhabited by different tribes
of Dards speaking the Bard dialect ; and the latter (Kohistan), a part
of Yaghistan, contains the districts of Khundeyah, Guryal, Dothoin,
Halail, Dubair, Samangyal, Munji, Bandkhar, &c., peopled by Afghans
who speak the Pashto.
The valley of Chitral, running in a south-westerly direction through
the whole length of the country (Upper and Lower included), and into
which numerous smaller valleys and defiles open out, is traversed
throughout by a river called Chitral, after the name of the country,
and Khunar, from the circumstance of its joining the Kunar or
Kama river at Chaghan Sarai, aplace in Kunar, whence the united
stream falls into the Landa or KTabul river at Jalalabad, 8 marches
below.
The Chitral river takes its rise from a lake called Chittiboi, at the
foot of the Chitral Pass, over the Kara-Koram or Trans-Thibetan
range, between Chitral and the Pamer steppes. This lake is some-
times closed with avalanches from the pass.
Chitral-bala lies along the upper course of the river, and Chitral-
payan on the lower.
The chief places in the former are — Mistuch, Yasin (seats of divi-
sional governments), Chitarkun, Payal, Gaokuch, Yarsh-gum ; and in
the latter, Chitral or Kashkaro, Suget, Baruz, Drus, &c.
The population consists* of Musalmans, both Sunni and Shia» and
Kafirs. The Sunnis inhabit the southern portion of the country,
and the Shias the northern and north-western tracts, adjoining the
* The two districts (Hunza and Nagri) have an area of 1672 square miles.
(Cunningham's 'Ladakh/ p. 38.)
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Chitral, and Kashmir. 37
Sbia districts of Wakhan, Zebak and Sanglich in Badakhsan, and
G-ilgit, &c. The Kafirs are confined to a tract bordering on Eiifiris-
tan, to which it formerly belonged, now under Chitral-payan.
The rulers, professing Stinniism, have, ever since the introduction
of Islamism into Central Asia, been carrying on the singularly hor-
rid practice of selling their own subjects into slavery. I'ollowin^ a
doctrine of their own creation, that the " Sharah " (Muhammacuui
law) permits the Sunni to make slaves of Kafirs (unbelievers),
amongst whom they include the Shias*, they have been in the habit
of capturing their Shia and Kafir subjects, as well as Siahposh E!afirs
or others kidnapped or forcibly brought away from the adjacent
countries of Kannstan, Oilgit, &c., and sellins them into slavery to
slave-dealers from Badakhshan, Kundus, Turkistan, Balkh, Bukhara,
and Afghanistan, &c., receiving their price in cash and goods. Cri-
minal and political offences amount the Shia and Kafir subjects of
Chitral are, as a general rule, punished by enslavement of the offen-
ders themselves, their children, or other grown-up relations. Some-
times whole families are sold away in groups. The Sunni population,
professing the same &ith as their rulers, and protected by the Sharah,
are free from all such servile bonda^ and transfer.
The slave forms one of the principal items of revenue of the Chi-
tral rulers. The annual tribute which they pay to the Chief of Ba-
dakhsan, to whom they owe a sort of allegiance, is made in slaves.
The Chitral slave girls and boys are the most prized of all the dif-
ferent descriptions of slaves brought to the Turkistan market, ex-
cepting, perhaps, the Irani (Persian), for their superior beauty f,
docility, and fidelitv. The Chitrali, perhaps, is equally faithful with
his brother slave of Africa, the negro (Habashi— Abyssinian), whose
devoted attachment to his master is proverbial in the East. The
Kafirs, distin^shed bv their whiter skins, redder complexion, blue
eyes, light hair, and roDuster form, are the most untractable and re-
vengeful of all the other descriptions of slaves in Central Asia.
Combining great physical strength with desperate courage, inured
to chase and war, from the nature of their country, their social
habits and institutions, and the constitution of their government,
which is purely patriarchal, divided into numerous patriarchies, split
by hereditary feuds into factions, the Kafirs have not only success-
fully repulsed the occasional predatory incursions of their Musalman
neighbours, the Afghans, the Chitralis, and the Badakhshis, but con-
stantly retaliated by making raids on all the tracts bordering on
their own. These marauding excursions have, of late years, ceased
* The Shia, though professing Islam, is looked upon by the Sunni in the
light of a Kafir, and termed "Rafazi'' (heretic). Throughout Turkistan
(Bukhara in particular) Shias are not tolerated. Whilst there, they are con-
sequently obbged to hide their belief, and conduct themselves in all outward
forms of religion, as well as social intercourse, like Sunnis.
t The ChitraUs bear a strong resemblance, m their physiognomy, features,
and colour, to the hill-neople of Chamba ana Kangra. Their beau^ consists
in symmetry of form, olack eyes, and hair. The Shias shave their beard,
and wear short hair, Uke natives of India.
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38 MuNPHooL Pundit — On Gilgit, Chitral, and Kashmir,
in the direction of Badakhshan and Chitral, since the eBtablishment
of friendly relations between the border Eifirs and the rulers of
those countries ; but the former stiU continue to infest and plunder
the caravan routes in the yicinity, and over the mountain passes of
Durah and Lahauri *.
The mutual dissensions amongst the Kafirs drove the Kafir tribes
now under Badakhshan and Chitral-pajan to submit to foreign
yokes.
Death is the only punishment the Kafirs inflict on their Musalmap
captives. All Kafir slaves who manage to escape back to their native
country (Kafiristan Proper) are allowed to revert to their faith and
social rights and privileges by their brethren.
The price of slaves throughout Turkistan generally varies from
600 to 100 Muhammad Shahi rupeest. It is generally paid partly
in cash and partly in goods, and rarely wholly in cash.
The Chitralis speak a peculiar dialect, called Chitrali ; the mercan-
tile and the higher classes speak Persian also.
The town of Chitral, called Kashkaro, or Kashkar by the Afghans,
capital of Chitral-payan, is the chief place of commerce in the coun-
try. It is situated on the two caravan routes between India, Ba-
dakhshan, and Yarkand, which, if cared for, can be made to connect
more closely the north-western frontier of India with Western
Turkistan through Badakhshan, and Eastern Turkistan through the
Pamer steppes, by the shortest, the directest, and, perhaps, the
easiest of all the lines of communication now in use. The only dan-
gerous portion of the route is the country of Yaghistan (Bajour and
Swat, including Dir), between Peshawar and Chitral.
Caravans of petty merchants now pass through Kashkaro annually,
between Peshawar, Yaghistan, and Afghanistan, on the south-east
and south west, and Badakhshan, Kundus, Balkh, Turkistan, and
Kolab, a principality in Bukhara, on the north-west, and Eastern
Turkistan on the north-east.
Mistuch and Yasin, in Chitral-bala, are also resorted to by traders
for the purchase of slaves. The former lies .on the caravan route
leading to Yarkand, 7 marches up the Chitral river from Kashkaro ;
the latter, lying between Mistuch and Gilgit, is about 15 marches
from Kjishkaro, and 6 or 7. from Mistuch.
Trade in Chitral is chiefly carried on by means of barter C* mar-
chah'*). The Peshawaris, |he Afghanistanis, and the Yaghistanis,
both Hindu and Musalman, exchange Bahadarkhel salt}, English
and Indian piece-goods, grocery, haberdashery, Bajour iron, for Har-
tal (orpiment), Chitral woollens (blankets and choghas), and falcons.
The merchants irom the north-west bring horses, Bukhara and Kho-
* The easiest and consequentlv the most frequented passes on the caiavan
route from Peshawar to Badakhshan. The former (Durah) lies over the
Hindu-kush range, between Chitral and Badakhshan, and the latter (Lahauri)
between Yaghistan and Chitral.
t A Muhanmiad Shahi rupee is equal to 1 rupee and 3 annas of English
money at Peshawar.
X ux the Kohat district of the Punjab.
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Sir George Grey — On Quartziie Implements, 39
kand silks, cloaks of Eussiaa broad-cloth, and Badakhsliaa salt*,
cotton cloth, and degchoans (iron cans, cast after the Bussian style),
&c., for the purchase of slaves and Chitral woollens (cloaks, blan-
kets, and stockings). The trade between Yarkand and India, or
Afghanistan, through Chitral, is confined to certain adventurous
Afghans only : natives of Yarkand seldom or never take this route.
Chitral, as already stated, is held by two different branches of an
ancient femily, descended from a common ancestor, " Kathor." The
branch in possession of Chitral-bala is caUed the '' Khushwaktia,"
from Khushwakt, an ancestor of the present incumbents ; that holdinc;
Chitral-payan goes by the name of the " Shahkathoria," after Shah
Kathor, grandfather of thQ present ruler, Aman-ul-mulk. The two
branches not only rule over their respective countries, independently
of each other, but are generally at variance with one another.
Sir George Grey^ K.C.B.^ exhibited a collection of quartzite
implements from the Cape of Good Hope^ and the honorary
Secretary read the following extracts from letters on the subject.
IV. On CluARTZiTE Implements from the Cape op Good Hope.
By Sir George Grey, K.C.B.
Extract of letter from Thomas Holdin Bowker, Esq. : —
Tharfield; near Bathurst,
July 8th, 1860.
" I do not know whether you are acquainted with any of the
gentlemen who have taken an interest in our South-African
antiquities (for we have such things). In the year 1858 I was
the first to recognize the ancient stone arrow- and spear-heads,
since found scattered all the way from Tharfield to East London,
the Bashee, the Orange Free State, and to the Cape Flats and
Green Point. An account of the discovery of these implements
appeared in the ' Somerset and Bedford Courant,' and was taken
over and published by the Anglo- African newspaper in Graham's
Town ; since then I nave sent, through Mr. Layard, a parcel of
them to Professor Owen, of the British Museimi. I also sent at
his request, through Mr. Commanding-General Bamet in Gra-
ham's Town, a considerable number to General Lefroy, who
received them safely. My late mother's cousin. Lord Bedes-
dale, at Vernon House, St. James's Park, has also a select parcel.
One curious fact concerning these rude weapons, early attracted
my attention, which was this : no South-African tribe has ever
* From the mines of Ealaogan in Mashhad and in Farakhar, both districts
of BadftkhfthaTi,
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40 Sir Oeobge Grey — On Quartzite Implements.
been discovered in the use of them^ not even upon their being
first visited by Europeans^ nor have they been found among any
tribe in the far interior^ though they may use them (as do the
Hottentots and Kaf&rs of the present day^ together with our-
selves) for the purpose of striking fire. I always use them for
striking fire when hunting or takuig wild boars. I am strongly
impressed with the idea that they are the sole remnant or record-
ing evidence in stone of a race of human beings that inhabited
South Africa in times far anterior to the advent of either
Hott«ntots^ Kaffirs^ or Bushmen.''
Extract of letter from Dr. W. G. Atherstone : —
Graham's Town,
September 14th, 1869.
" I sent to you by Mr. Maturin (Controller General) a small
box of stone arrow-heads Sec., from Tharfield, which Mr. Holden
Bowker gave me for you, and which I intended to have enclosed
with some of my own collections ; but Maturin left before I could
get mine ready. We found kitchen-mounds, with fragments of
pots, with the little bits of quartz incorporated, exactly like those
found in the Danish kitchen-mounds. I also found parts of a
human skeleton, a sacrum and pelvis (female), but so decomposed
that most of it crumbled to pieces in getting it out. The bones
stuck forcibly to the tongue, and must have lain buried there
beneath the shell-heaps for centuries. I have written an account
of this, and of the arrow-heads at the Kleenemand and Eiet
rivers."
EXPLANATION OF PLATE L
Hgs. 1 & 2. Stone objects found at Tharfield, neai Bathursty Lower Albany,
Gape of Good Hope — " probably ear-rings, or rather buttons for insertion
into the lobe of the ear. Natural size.
Tig. 8. Quartzite Implement, found at Tharfield, Gape of Good Hope. Hali"-
size.
Discussion.
Snt Oeoboe Gbsy said that he was not aware of any existing
race using or having used stone-implements in that part of South
Africa from which these stone implements came. Tne Hottentots
and Kaffirs (of various races) use iron implements, and are well ac-
quainted with processes for manufacturing iron. The Bushmen use
bone-headed arrows dipped in a deadly poison.
Kthe stone implements laid before the Society were manufactured
by a now extinct race, or by one now amalgamated with the Hotten-
tots and Kaffirs, they must, he thought, date back to a distant
origin ; for it is probable that the Hottentots, an iron-manufacturing
people, occupied the country of the Kaffirs, where these imple-
ments are found, before the Kaffirs ; for mountains and rivers in that
country still bear Hottentot names. The Kaffirs of that district
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Joum. Et^o. Soc PI
Fx^ 1.
"Na,t. Size
Fis 2.
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STONE IMPLEMENTS «e. FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Discussion. 41
hare also adopted into tHeir language two of the Hottentot clicks,
which are not found in the Kaflir class of languages.
The Kaffirs, themselves an iron-manufacturing people, have occu-
pied the country where these implements are found for many gene-
rations— ^at least fourteen (which they account for), and may have been
there for a much longer time ; and as they succeeded the Hottentots
in the country, these stone implements apparently date from a
remote epoch.
Col. Laitb Fox said that amongst the interesting relics exhibited
by Sir G-eorse &rey he noticed one or two types that were new to
him ; one of these was a small disk about 1^ inch in diameter and §
inch thick (PI. I. fig. 2) ; it appeared to be a water-worn pebble
roughly ground on the circumference. Such disks were usually
supposed to have been used as hammer stones : he thought, however,
that this was too small to be used for such a purpose, and that the
suggestion of Mr. Bowker, that it may have been used for insertion
into the lobe of the ear, was a very reasonable one.
Quartzite implements from the Cape have been exhibited and de-
scribed to this and other societies by Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Busk.
The majority of those now exhibited are of the same character as
those already known to us from the same locality, and do not call for
any special notice ; there is one form, however, which merits parti-
cular attention, from its resemblance to the palseolithic or drift type
of this country (fig. 3) : it is 6 inches in length, 4 in greatest width,
and from 1^ to 2 inches thick at the large end, of a pointed oval form,
the greatest width being at the thick end ; the small end and the
greater part of the sides are trimmed to a cutting edge ; the thick
end is roughly rounded, or the natural surface of the stone at this end
has been lefl untouched. This type, indeed, is not unknown to us as
occurring at the Cape of Good Blope ; for one other implement of this
form was sent over oy Mr. Layard some time ago*. As we have now
seen two implements of this form amongst the comparatively few
specimens that have been sent from the Cape, it is reasonable to
assume that it is typical ; and being identicsu with those from the
river-drift of this country, it may have been used in the same manner.
It would be interesting, therefore, if it could be ascertained whether
there is a corresponding difference of age, and whether the deposits
in which the drift-type implements occur at the Cape are older than
those from which the other implements are derived. Some of the
other implements approach to the form of arrow-heads, and corre-
spond to the " surface-type " of Europe, which, with the exception of
the flakes, never occur in the same deposits as the paleolithic or drift
type implements. In India, Mr. Bruce Foote has shown that imple-
ments of the drift type composed of quartzite, and so identical with
these implements from the Cape as to be undistins^uishable from
them, are found in " Laterite deposits " of great antiquity, overlain
by surface-deposits containing implements corresponding to the
•* surface-types " of Europe. The two cases, in India and in Europe,
* A drawing of this was exhibited, taken from a cast in the Bntish Museum ; the
original was returned to the Cape.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
42 Sib George Geey — On Quartzite Implements.
are parallel ; it is therefore of interest that the Gape deposits should
he examiued with reference to this point, and it is to he hoped that
those gentlemen who have already done such good service hy sending
us these specimens will, before long, be able to give the JSoeiety some
more detailed geological evidence respecting them.
As regards the drift-type implements of Europe, it has been usual
to classify the larger forms under two heads — the long spear-headed
form, and the oval form. No doubt, as this classification has been
laid down and accepted by high authority, it must stand for the pre-
sent. But the speaker cbubted whether it was the best that could
be devised : the two forms pass so imperceptibly into each other by
connecting links, that it is impossible to draw any hard and fast line of
separation between ; and there is evidence to show that the form of
implements depended on the form of the flint stones out of which
they were made. When the fabricator found a long flint, he made it
into a long spear-headed implement ; and from an oval stone he con-
structed an oval implement : this was shown to be the case by some
half-finished implements, in which the original shape of the stone was
left untouched on one side, whilst the chipping process was completed
on the other — thus showing the correspondence between the worked
implement and the unworked stone*. He thought that if a difference
in the design of the fabricator could be determined, it would aflbrd
a better means of classifying the implements than differences arising
from the accidental shapes of the flints ; such differences of design he
thought might be traced. Some of these implements, whether of the
long spear-headed form, or of the oval form, were thick and rounded at
the large end, where the natural surface of the stone was often left
untouched ; the Cape implement exhibited was of this form : these
were well adapted to be held in the hand. Others were chipped te an
edge all round ; and these were ill-adapted for holding in the hand, as
the chipped edge would chafe the hand. He had eh^where given his
reasons for believing that this form led by degrees to the use of the
celt, in which the cutting edge was at the large end. This type might
have been used in a handle, whilst the other might have been held in
the hand. If a different use could be assigned to these implements, it
would afford clear ground for a distinct classification ; but of course it
was purely hypothetical to speak of the uses of these ancient weapons.
Classification should be based upon observation, and not upon conjec-
ture. In the one case, an edge was formed upon the sides and small
end only ; in the other the edge continued all round the periphery of
the tool ; and in thus distinguishing them, whatever might have been
the uses to which they were put, a distinct difference of design might
be recognized on the part of the fabricator. He thought also that
geological evidence would bear out this classification. The round-
ended types are peculiar to the drift ; it may be said that they never
occur in more recent deposits, although an approximation to them is
occasionally, though rarely, met with amongst surface implements ;
but the spear-headed outline is, as the term it«elf implies, common to
ail periods in which flint spear-heads were used.
* [One of these unfinished implements was exhibited at the Meeting. — Sub-Ei>.]
Digitized by
Google
F. AcHESON — On a supposed Stone Implement from Wicklow. 43
Mr. BoTD Dawkins considered that the implement referred by
CoL Lane Fox to the palaBolithic type (fig. 3), was merely a roughly-
chipped form not necessarily connected with thepalseolithic implements
of Europe. Such a rude approximation to a dril't-type is presented by
worked flints which he found on the South Downs, between Brighton
and Lewes, along with polished stone axes. A somewhat similar form
he has also seen from iS^ew Zealand. The implements at the Cape
occurring over so wide an area, seem to have been dropped under the
same conditions as those on the present land-surface of Great Britain
and France, and cannot be referred to any well-defined European
standard of archeeological time. In his opiaion, all that can safely be
predicated about them is, that they belong to what Mr. John Evans calls
" the surface-period." Mr. Boyd Dawkins also defended the present
classification of the drift-implements, on the ground that, although all
the types had been found in the gravels, with one exception at the
Brixham cave, none of the spear-heads of the drift had been found in
any palseolithic cave.
Ordinary Meeting^ December 7th^ 1869.
Professor Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair.
New Member : — Jonas Hewitt, Esq.
Mr. F. AcHEsoN exhibited a supposed stone implement found
in the washings of a gold-bearing stream in Wicklow, and the
honorary Secretary reaid the following note : —
V. Note on a supposed Stone Implement ^rom Co. Wicklow,
Ireland. By F. Acheson, Esq.
In reply to your request for a description of the supposed stone
implement I found in the Wicklow gold-mines (Fig. 1), I beg to
Fig. 1.
say that it was obtained at a depth of about twenty feet below
the bed of the gold-mining river, near Wooden Bridge, Co. Wick-
low, while sinking a shaft in search for gold.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
44 Major-Gen. Lefbx)y — On the Stature of Chipewyan Indians.
The surface-stratum of the bed of the river consisted of a
layer of slaty gravel, about four feet in thickness, which overlay
a bed of stiff yellow clay, about twelve feet thick, which
had vertical sedimentary layers of gravel parallel to each other,
and of a lunar shape, appearing to indicate that the clay had
been tilted up into a vertical position.
Below the clay was a stratum of dirty slate gravel, and sand,
from six to eight feet in thickness, which lay upon the bed-
rock of slate ; the lower portion of this last, lying upon the rock,
is called the ^' washing-sand,'' on account of its containing the
gold.
While washing this latter stratum of gravel, between the clay
and the rock, and testing it for gold, the above-mentioned piece
of stone was found in the last washing-box by the man engaged,
who used it for stirring up the auriferous sand in the washing-
bowl. Observing this, I asked him where he obtained that
stone, as I noticed its remarkable shape, when he immediately
informed me that he took it out of the last of the washing-boxes j
and on subsequently questioning him he persisted in this state-
ment.
I need not enter upon any description of the stone and its
appearance, as it is in your possession. I would only add that
the accompanying gravel is very little water- worn.
The honorary Secretary then read the following note : —
VI. Note on the Stature op American Indians of the
Chipewyan Tribe. By Major-General Lbproy, E.A.
The Hudson's Bay station of Lake Athabasca was visited during
my residence there, in December, 1843, by a large party of
Chippewyan Indians, from what are termed the Barren Lands,
the region lying to the north and east of that great lake. These
Indians are very rarely seen within the precincts of the trading-
posts; they subsist principally on the reindeer, of which the
Barren Lands are the great breeding-ground, and they represent
an uncontaminated Indian stock. Nothing could exceed die wild
appearance of the party now referred to, clothed as they were
from head to foot in reindeer-skin dresses, and with scarcely any
articles of European manufacture about them. I forget what
they came for, — ^probably a little scarlet cloth, axes, and tobacco-
no/ gunpowder, as they possess very few guns, and still rely
principaUy on that ancient instrument the bow-and-arrow. To
the great terror of many of them, I subjected the whole to the
mysterious '^ medicine^' of standing against a wall and having their
stature recorded : this is unfortunately the sole physical datum
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Lieut. Oliver — On Channel-Island Remains.
45
collected^ and perhaps the only one they could have been in-
duced to yield. Having had the note lying by me for many
years, I venture to submit it to the Ethnological Society as a
bare fact, worth recording for its rarity, perhaps, and one to
which the early disappearance which too probably awaits the
race may give a future interest. It will be seen that the mean
height of 33 adult males of this subarctic tribe was barelv under
5 feet 7 inches, and that the only woman who could be induced
to stand up was 5 ft. 5*9 in. Six growing lads of uncertain
ages averaged 5 ft. 2*8 in. There were several individuals
who would be called tall, even in this land of tall men.
Height* cf Ohipeioyan
Indiant, meatured in
1843.
Adult Male
TAd*.
Woman.
ft. in.
ft. in.
fl; in.
ft. in.
1.
5 111
18.
5 6-7
5 4-7
6 6-9
2.
5 10-4
19.
5 6-6
5 4-6
3.
5 10-0
20.
5 6-6
5 4-4
4.
5 9-7
21.
5 6-5
5 2-3
6.
5 9-2
22,
5 6-5
5 2-2
6.
6 90
23.
5 6-4
4 10-4
7.
5 8-8
24.
5 61
8.
5 8-8
25.
5 5-8
9.
6 8-5
26.
5 5-8
10.
5 8-0
27.
5 5-7
11.
5 7-9
28.
5 5-0
12.
5 7-8
29.
5 50
13.
5 7-5
30.
5 4-5
14.
5 7-5
31.
5 3-7
15.
5 7-2
32.
5 2-8
16.
6 7-1
33.
6 1-5
17.
5 7-1
ATenge.
5 6-96
6 2-8
6 5-9
Lieutenant Oliver II.A., then read extracts from the following
Eeport : —
VII. Report on the Present State and Condition of Prehis-
toric Remains in the Channel Islands. By Lieut. S. P.
Oliver, E.A., F.R.G.S.
Introduction.
It is only lately that public attention has been turned to the
present unprotected state of our national monuments and relics
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
46 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
of past age8 in this country, and at the request of the Isite first
Commissioner of Works (Mr. Layard) the Society of Antiqua-
ries have akeady been preparing a list of all historical and
regal monuments, throughout the kingdom, to which the Impe-
rial protection should be extended. Meantime, in consequence
of Sir John Lubbock's appeal after the late destruction of the
Great Tolmaen, the Ethnological Society appointed, in March
1869, a committee to investigate and inquire into the present state
and condition of all prehistoric structures and remains in the
British isles, with the view of obtaining the extension of the
State guardianship over them.
Being quartered in Guernsey, I offered to report upon the
existing prehistoric structures in the Channel Islands (although
strictly speaking this Anglo-Norman archipelago can hardly be
included among the British isles); and my services having been
accepted by the Committee, I give the following as the result of
my inquiries.
A protective supervision of such prehistoric structures is
nowhere more needed than in the Channel Islands, and the
urgent necessity for legislation on this subject has long been
acknowledged by the most thoughtful island-archaeologists, who
have before attempted again and again, although hitherto in-
effectually, to interest their fellow-islanders in the preservation
of such relics.
The wholesale destruction that has taken place within the
last half-century in these islands is beyond belief. In Jersey,
for instance, out of fifty Celtic stone structures mentioned by
Poingdestue but very few remain. The finest cromlech was
presented to a popular governor on his leaving the island ; and
of the four cromlechs ruined vestiges alone remain, two having
been restored {?) after the ideas of a Reverend amateur !
In Alderney the navvies employed on the Admiralty Works
have amused themselves with smashing up all the megaliths that
they could lay their hands on.
In Herm the quarrymen of a granite-company have in Eke
manner destroyed most of the cap-stones of the numerous crom-
lechs and circles which abound in this small island.
In Serk but one insignificant portion of a lust alone remains
extant, where doubtless there were originally numbers.
In Guernsey alone, hitherto, has that watchful archseologist,
Mr. Lukis, interfered to put a stop to ignorant and wanton de-
molition, and even here often without success.
Nevertheless, in spite of all these drawbacks, there are few
localities (Brittany excepted) in which the sepulchral stone struc-
tures of the neolithic period can be studied with greater ad-
vantage than in this small archipelago, and in fewer places have
Digitized by VjOOQIC
in the Channel Islands, 47
these relics of the Celtic race been more leisurely and systema-
tically examined by such experienced archseologists as Mr.
Lukis and his sons : considering that sixty years ago Mr. Lukis
commenced studying prehistoric remains, and was, I believe, the
first exponent of their sepulchral character, he may be rightly
termed one of the patriarchs of the present school of prehistoric
archaeology. The remains in the Bailliewick of Guernsey ^ which
includes Aldemey, Serk, and Herm, have more especially been
explored and minutely examined by the above-mentioned gen-
tlemen, and the results published ifrom time to time in the
' Archseologia ; ' whilst by the liberality of the same veteran the
sites of various cromlechs in Guernsey have been purchased to
ensure their protection.
It is also satisfactory to know that the numerous remains
which have survived the onslaught of the quarrymen in Herm
are for the present safe in the hands of one proprietor, Major
Montague Fielden, who undertakes to preserve them. I wish I
could report the same of those in Jersey and Aldemey, which, I
am sorry to say, are in a most precarious situation.
In pointing out such prehistorical structures as stand in
need of protective supervision, it is with the utmost diffidence
(being, indeed, beyond my province) that I would venture to offer
any suggestion as to the nature of the authority under which
such supervision should be exercised, and more particularly
since the peculiar insular jealousy of any Imperial interference
with the unique laws of property extant in the Channel Islands
renders any such suggestion a matter of great delicacy. I trust,
however, that the results aimed at by the present inquiry may
be sooner or later obtained through the influence of the President
and Council of this Society.
It is almost needless to point out, although much to be re-
gretted, that the neolithic vestiges now to be protected are
more rare and less perfect than they would have been, could this
protection have been afforded to them sooner ; and we now pay
severely the penalty for this inattention on the part of our fore-
fathers. Such few, indeed, now remain for examination as have
escaped the wreck and annihilation of ever-extending agricul-
tural and engineering operations^ whilst barely one exists which
has not been more or less pillaged by the mere treasure-seeker —
the excavations (those by Mr. LuJris excepted) having been
conducted carelessly, unsystematically, without care or record,
and thus caused an irreparable injury to the cause of science.
Perhaps, however, these monuments have still worse enemies
than the treasure-seeker and navvy, viz. those " modem Goths,''
as Earl Stanhope rightly denominates the injtuUcious restorers.
Still, even after dl this great amount of unprincipled dilapi-
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48 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
dation and so-called restoration, there remain in the Channel
Islands many noble megalithic structures and other remains of
immense prehistoric importance, for the protection and care of
which it is now proposed to demand the guardianship of the
State.
I proceed to detail the various structures, commencing with
those in Guernsey ; and I have also drawn up a synoptical Chart
or Table, arranged according to the various parishes, by which
at a glance can be seen those that are in most danger and their
relative importance. The classification and nomenclature fol-
lowed is that proposed by Dr. F. C. Lukis, and to be found in
vol. XXXV. pp. S32--258 of the 'Archaeologia.'
GUEBNSEY*
Vale Parish.
No. 1. The large chambered cromlech on L'Ancresse Common
stands on the summit of Le Mont de la Varde, or Mont St.
Michel*; and the structure bears the name of UAutel des
Vardes. It was first discovered in August 1811, when a regi-
ment of Mostemars arrived in Guernsey during the French
Revolution for protection. The regiment was stationed on this
hill, and raised a rampart around their camp by using the grass-
turf in the neighbourhood, and thus exposed the cap-stones of
the cromlech. Sir John Doyle, who was Governor at the time,
caused the cromlech to be partially excavated by a party of
soldiers, and worked down to the deposit at the western ex-
tremity ; but, as some of the stones appeared dangerous to the
working-party, the excavation was discontinued, and the sand
soon drifted in and filled the interior. The same year Mr. F. C.
Lukis made a partial examination of the monument, but also
soon desisted in consequence of the carelessness of the workmen
employed by him. '^The employment of paid workmen to do
this kind of work,'' said the Rev. W. C. Lukisf, *' which should
be done by the archaeologist himself, is always unsatisfactory ;
no one should undertake digging who fears blistering his hands,
whilst the eye of the explorer should be directed to every spade-
full of earth.''
* This hill is a rocky elevation, in great part covered by the sand which
forms the surface of the nlain or common of L'Ancresse. By the constant
action of the wind upon tne plain and elevated parts of this neighbourhood,
by which the silt is thrown up, this structure might be again covered en-
tirely with sand. It is to this covering, indeed, that we owe the preserva-
tion of this and other Celtic remains ; for no mode of interment, says Sir
Charles Lyell, can be conceived more favourable to the conservation of monu-
ments for mdefinite periods than their burial by drifting sand.
t At the Meeting of the Ripon Scientific Society, January 19, 1865.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in the Channel Islands. 49
In the summers of 1837 and 1838, however, a full and systematic
examination of the interior of this cromlech was conducted by
Messrs. F. C. Lukis, sen., P. C. Lukis, jun., Eev. W. C. Lukis,
Thomas Harvey, and two assistants — ^when, after considerable
labour, the cromlech was emptied of its accumulated sand, and
its primaeval contents exposed. This large cromlech (see plan,
PL VII. fig. 1) is 45 feet in length, at its western extremity
15 feet wide, and 8 feet high beneath the largest cap-stone:
firom this point it gradually contracts on all sides towards the
eastern end, the supposed entrance being barely 3 feet high.
This space was covei^ by five larger and two smaller blocks
of granite as cap-stones ; of these the five larger alone remain
m situ. The western stone is much the largest, and is about
17 feet long, lOJ feet wide, by 4^ feet in depth. The next is
16 feet long, the third being smaller, and thus they gradually
<iiminish in size to the eastern end. They are not in contact ;
and the supporting side-props, seventeen*^ on the north and
fifteen on the south side, preserve different relative heights in
the same proportion.
It is surrounded by the remains of a circular peristalith 60 feet
in diameter, and which probably marked the site of a wall sur-
rounding the tumulus which is supposed to have originally
covered this sepulchral vault. Approaching to this circle from
the north and north-west are traces of a stone causeway in a
serpentine form. One can be traced from the north 240 feet,
and from the north-west 78 feet.
On the north-west side, adjoining the large western chamber,
is a side-chamber, where one of the original side- supporting up-
rights has been moved back at a later period to form a supple-
mentary kist.
It is needless to give more than the above outline of the
construction of this cromlech, as it has been described in the
' Archseologia,' vol. xvii.p.254, and its contents fully detailed and
illustrated by Dr. F. C. Lukis in vol. xxxv. of the ' Archseologia,'
pp. 232-258. This structure may be quoted as illustrating the
want of State protection. In consequence of the seventh or
smallest cap-stone being removed, Mr. F, C. Lukis obtained
from the Royal Court of Guernsey a right to prevent persons
from doing any more injury to this noble cromlech. This au-
thoritative interference has thrice been exercised with effect;
but, unfortunately, only last year the sixth cap-stone was violently
thrown down and broken by persons unknown. At present this
cromlech is in no immediate danger, although the inhabitants
of the Clos du Y alle claim the right of removal of stone from
the common. It is possible that some restriction upon this
* Including the large western block.
VOL. II. J5^ J
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
50 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
right might be made by the Royal Court in reference to this
and other Celtic structures in the neighbourhood.
No. 2. About the centre of the common at L'Ancresse^ and
to the southward of the last-mentioned cromlech^ is a small
Kist-vaen in a tolerable state of preservation (PI. III. fig. 1, and
PL VII. fig. 5). It was first discovered^ surveyed, and drawn
in 1811, by Mr. Lukis. In 1837 this place was cleared out, and
the brambles removed, by Mr. Lukis, when a few pieces of well-
marked pottery were found, which differed from that found at
the cromlech on the hiU {vide ' Journal of Association,' vol. iii.
p. 342) . In 1838 Mr. Lukis made a closer examination of this
kist-vaen, as also of the remains of a similar structure ten or
twelve yards to the eastward. The stones had been greatly dis-
turbed, and the cap-stone of the latter removed a great many
years back — ^at least eighty years ago.
In 1840, still farther search was made, by Dr. F. C. Lukis and
J. W. Lukis, Esq. The floor of the kist near the northern prop
exposed two well- formed celts, Nos. 58 and 59 of Coll. Antiqua;'
these instruments were most perfect and beautiAilly polished,
the stone being a fine-grained diorite containing streaks and
spots giving it a porphyritic character. One is of a finer tex-
ture, containing streaks of a darker colour; and about a dozen
celts similar to this have been found in Guernsey*: whence
these had been imported it is at present impossible to say. A
plan (PL VII. fig. 6) is given of this kist-vaen, drawn by J. W.
Lukis, Esq. The largest cap-stone, which is of a peculiar shape,
and about 14 feet long, is, happily, still in position, and forms a
picturesque object.
No. 3. To the eastward of the great cromlech, and situate in
a hollow near a pool called La Mare aux Mauves, is another Kisty
on the property of Mons. Falla of des Rocques Barries (PI. III.
fig.2, andPl. VIILfig. 1).
Twenty-four feet to the westward is a large stone, which per-
haps may have been the western block of a cromlech to which
this kist and adjoining chambers were but adjuncts (compare
plan, PL VIII. fig. 1, with that of Du Thus, PL VII. fig. 2) . Only
one cap-stone, on six small supporting props, remains. This was
examined by Mr. F. C. Lukis in 1844, and found to have been
greatly disturbed. When the neighbouring Martello towers were
built the workmen are supposed to have removed many stones
from this kist f.
No. 4. About 100 yards from the above-mentioned kist to
the north-east are the remains of another Kist-vaen, It was
* Mr. F. G. Lukis has found one specimen of a similar celt at Bonno, in
the Morbihan, likewise imported,
t See ' Aichsdological Journal,' vol. i. p. 222.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in the Channel Islands. 51
almost entirely destroyed by the workmen at the erection of the
Martello tower close by. Some flints and stone mailers were
found here.
No. 5. Not far from Bordeaux harbour^ near the estate known
by the name of Paradis, is a locality termed DuThus or De-hus,
which was purchased of Jean Hubert (as appears from a deed in
the possession of the heirs of Mons. Jean De Havilland) on the
23rd of April 1770, for the sum of 56 livres 16 sous Toumois,
or about £4 Is. Here, close to the road, is situate a magni-
ficent cromlech, which is known by the name of UAutel du Di-
huSy or UAutel du Grand Sarazin. This cromlech is still par-
tially surrounded by the tumulus which originally entirely co-
vered it, round the verge of which a stone circle existed 60 feet
(the usual size) in diameter, of which circle but four or five
stones remain. This cromlech consists of a large western
chamber, about 15 feet square, supporting three large cap-stones,
the largest, at the west end, being 16 feet 6 inches long by 11 feet
8 inches broad. The second cap-stone is broken, and a prop
(see plan, PI. YII. fig. 2) has been added to support it. There
are seven cap-stones altogether to the main avenue, which is
divided into three main chambers by evident dividing-blocks,
and hence may be termed " Tripartite J*
The most interesting belongings of this cromlech are un-
doubtedly the unique side-chambers marked A, B, C, D in
Mr. J. W. Lukis's plan (PL VII. fig. 2) of which A and B are
quite covered, and C partially, with cap-stones. These lateral
chambers, or side-kists, contained, when examined, curious and
unique forms of interment*. Two of these are to the north of
the main structure, the smaller one to the east, marked B, con-
taining two kneeling, or crouching, skeletons. The eastern-
most kist of the two to the south, marked D, contained, when
opened, three separate floors or layers of interment. These are
minutely described in the ' Archaeologia' f- The central point
of the peristalith is in the main western chamber. The eastern
extremity of this cromlech is closed by a large stone on the edge
of the road which runs by it. This cromlech is safely protected
by the proprietors.
No. 6. Le Tombeau du Grand Sarazin (PI. VIII. fig. 2).
Once a simple kist in the centre of a fiirze-field belonging to the
estate called Paradis, proprietor Mr. J. Collas. It was most un-
happily damaged by workmen who wanted stone for repairing the
bam of the proprietor, and, unknown to him, partly destroyed, in
1810. In 1838 it was examined by Mr. Lukis, and human bones
were found under the remains of the cap-stone. From the in-
* See ' Archseologiay' vol. xzxv. p. 232, &c.
t Association Journal, voL iv. p. 323.
Digitizfd" Google
52 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
terior nearly twenty jars and vessek were removed. These urns
have invariably the base rounded. No change in the state in
which it which it was left by Mr. Lukis has taken place^ and the
proprietor is willing to preserve it.
The urns and jars are in Mr. Lukis's Museum; they are
tolerably perfect. One rude celt was founds and a piece of
opalized sponge.
No. 7. La Roche qui sonne (PL V. fig. 1 ; PI. VIII. fig. 3).
The remains of this cromlech are to be found nearly buried be-
neath the rubbish of a quarry which has been opened near it
since its examination by Mr. Lukis. Many stones are extant
in this neighbourhood which originally belonged to this crom-
lech. It is' said to have been the largest in the island^ consist-
ing of five or six cap-stones evidently lying, in conformity with
others in this parish, east and west. The remains were dis-
covered by Mr. Lukis and his sons in 1837, nearly covered
by a large hedge, which had been planted over the only re-
maining cap-stone of this once celebrated cromlech. By per-
mission of Mr. Jean Henri, the thornbushes and hedge were
removed; and a fine cap-stone about 14 feet in length was
discovered resting on two props on the south side (see PI. VIII.
fig. 3). Several urns and vessels were removed from beneath
it, as also a bracelet of silver and brass, and another of jet*,
together with many good polished muUers and grinding-stones
and fragments of pottery. The ground on the western side of
this stone was explored, and found to consist of broken granite
(or '^ spalls," as they are named by quarrymen), being the evi-
dent signs of the destroyed portions of the cromlech, said to
have been broken up for building the farm-house called Belval^
which stands in front of this structure on the south side of the
highroad. It should be remarked that this building, shortly
after completion, caught fire by some mysterious means and was
burnt down — a sure judgment, as it is thought, for the de-
secration which had been committed by the destruction of the
cromlech ; this event, however, ensured the preservation of the
remaining portion of this once magnificent cromlech. Among
the Mbris of the western portion the fragments of pottery dis-
played superior workmanship in pattern and material. The
above feelings on the sacrilege committed by the proprietor still
act on the minds of the superstitious peasants in the neighbour-
hood, the more so since a ship laden with stones from this
cromlech was wrecked and all hands lost. This monument still
belongs to the Henri family, and is in imminent danger of being
* After writing the above we found a small celt of fibrolite in possession
of a cottag^er near the Roche qui sonne, where he dug it up two years since.
It is now m liLr. Lukis^s possession.
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in the Channel Islands. 53
entirely destroyed by the quarrymen who are at work close by
the spot; but Mr. Henri^ the proprietor^ is disposed to pre-
serve it if possible. This is the last of the Celtic structures
to be described in the Vale Parish.
St. Sampson^s Parish.
No. 8. On the Hougue^ or hill^ to the rear of the Parsonage^
several stone graves have been destroyed. Hand-bricks and
glass amulets of the Romano-Gallic (?) period were found.
No. 9. On the Vieille Hougue in the same parish^ a demi-
dolmen was discovered and preserved for some years. Bones
and pottery were found beneath, and several stone celts in its
neighbourhood. The stone itself was broken up by the quarry-
men* in 1860, after the death of the proprietor, Mr. Isemonger,
who had preserved it during his lifetime.
No. 10. A Menhir called La Chaise au Pritre and La Chaise
de St. Bonix, near the above-mentioned demi-dolmen, has re«
centlv been destroyed f. Two fine celts were at its base. The
vicimty of these monuments, where several stone instruments
have been obtained, bears the name of " Les terres du Dis " J.
No. 11. On the hill called Les Monts, or at present De
Lancey Hill, formerly stood a Menhir nearly due south of the
afore-mentioned Chaise de St. Bonix, and in sight of it, which
was known as La Pierre pointue. When the chevauchi went
through the island, with the authorities of the ancient Court de
TAbbaye de St. Michel, the cavalcade and the pions were enter-
tained, and dances were performed around this menhir. The
proprietor, Mons. Blampied, regretted the destruction of the
menhir, which, however, interfered with buildings then being
erected on the site.
No. 12. On L'ilet, opposite to Vale Church, there still exists
the hollow space where a kist once stood. It is supposed to
have been destroyed in 1801> — ^when the embankment called
Arnold's Bridge was built, and the Braye du Valle was recovered
from the sea. Several stone celts have been obtained in this
vicinity.
No. 13. In the neighbourhood of Bonceval several stone
troughs, rubbers, and stone celts have been discovered; and
there was a small religious house (now destroyed) on the spot
* Nearly a dozen celts found in this neigbourhood are in Mr. LuIob's pos-
seesion.
t Destroyed in 1864 byDymond, the quarryman^ after he had engaged to
preserve it
X The word Dw is interesting to the archfleolosist, and is here found in its
proper place, on Celtic ground. The Gauls and Britons believed that they
were descended from " i>M," t. e. from the earth. The Qermans believed
themselves to have sprung from '* Tuesco,^^ or '^ Thiu,*^
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54 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
known as Pulias^ where still a wall of some building may be
seen. The lands are situate on La Yingtaine de L'Epine^ to
the north-west of the hill called Les Vardes^ and not far from
highwater-mark. A considerable quantity of hand-bricks and
pottery has been found, particularly on a small hougue known
as '^ Le camp sauvage/' belonging to St. Laine du Yangrat.
No. 14. The singular rock-pillar known as La Rocque Magii^
was destroyed three years ago by quarrymen. This is the more
to be regretted, as geologically it was evidently connected with
the raised beach in this part of the parish.
No. 15. Near Grand-Bock Battery some pottery and stone
rubbers have been found.
Catel Parish.
No. 16. Near the Houmet Battery the small sea cavern called
the Creux des F6es has nothing, so to speak, of human work
about it, although often spoken of by the country-folk as con-
nected with other ancient remains.
No. 17. Yazon Bay produces, like the Bay of Cabo, consi-
derable beds of submarine peat, in which pottery, stone celts,
and one portion of a stone bangle have been found.
St. Saviour^s Parish.
No. 18. Richmond Point and Le Crocq. This hill, originally
known as Le Mont nouvS, has still a menhir in good order,
and the debris of a stone kist on the point of Le Crocq. Several
stone celts, pottery, and clay beads have been found. On the
coast here broken vessels and handbricks are frequently dis-
covered. This menhir is about 10 feet in height (PI. YI. fig. 3) .
One fine celt, with a button-head, was found near it by Le Sieur
Le Breton of the Jennies, and is in the collection of Mr. F. C.
Lukis.
No. 19. Le Tripled Cromlech stands on a hill known by the
name of Catioroc, probably a corruption of " Quoit en rocq.''
This was examined by Mr. Lukis in 1839-40, and described by
him in the ' Archaeological Journal,' vol. i. p. 222.
This cromlech is in the possession of Mr. Bonamy Maingy
(PL lY. fig. 1; PI. YII. fig. 4). There are three cap-stones : the
westernmost one has slipped firom its position ; and underneath
this undoubtedly some relics may yet be obtained. The second
cap-stone is in situ on its props, whilst the third cap-stone is
partly broken, and a large fragment lies underneath it. There
are six stone side-props on both the north and side-stones,
besides the western slab. It is doubtful if the stones shown in
the plan formed part of a peristalith ; but there are evidences
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in the Channel Islands. 55
of a side-chamber on the south side. It is proposed to further
explore this structure.
No. 20. About two hundred yards to the eastward of the
above-mentioned cromlech^ under a watch-tower^ there were
formerly four stone ffraoes. These were explored by Mr. Lukis
in 1840^. They were found to contain iron knives^ swords^ and
daggers^ as well as fictile vessels.
No. 21. On the promontory of I/E£e another cromlech has
been left^ bappily without sharing any of the ravages caused by
the hand of man. It stands near the road which leads to the
small island of Lihou (PL YII. fig. 3). At present it consists
of two large cap-stones^ which measure about 20feet across; these
cover a considerable chamber supported by fifteen side-props.
At the eastern entrance are five side-props uncovered, but an
apparent cap-stone lies partially covered with turf on the south
side of the entrance. Like all the others in Guernsey, this
structure is orientated, and is nearly covered by the original
tumulus ; hence the interior presents the appearance of a dark
and gloomy cavern, and is used as a stable for cattle. The
popular name is the Oreiuc des Fees.
Seven of the stones forming the original peristalith yet remain.
In 1840 a regular examination of this cromlech took place by
Mr. F. C. Lukis and his sons. They found that this structure
had been filled with stones and rubbish by the commanding
officer of the soldiers at L'Er^e Barracks, to prevent his men
from hiding themselves within ; and the whole of this rubble
had to be removed.
The late Mr. Bonamy Maingy made an agreement to pur-
chase the Creux des Fees, as the cromlech formed part of the
line of demarcation between two proprietors. Mr. Corbin of
Les Adams claimed a share of the cromlech on the side of his
field. At a meeting of the parties on the field it was agreed
that compensation should be granted to Mr. Corbin; and £7
was paid by Mr. Lukis, and a new Hue or limit was accordingly
laid out. This property of the cromlech was then formally made
over to the Boyal States of Guernsey, as shown by the records.
No. 22. On a neighbouring point, where a battery was built
many years since, a kist or cromlech was destroyed. The name
De JTntset, or TussitSy sufficiently designates some ancient re-
mains having existed there.
St Peter" sAn-the-Wood Parish.
No. 23. On the road towards the menhir which is next men-
tioned, near the estate of Les Paysans, a tumulus once existed
* 'AichaDological Joamal,' vol. i. (Association), p. 905; ibid. vol. viii.
(Association), p. 64.
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56 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
over a stone structure^ and was known by the name of Creux
des Faias. Mr. Lukis obtained leave to excavate this, but^ on
his arrival at the spot^ found that the proprietor had been b^ore
him and entirely emptied the kist in search of tresor trouvS.
No. 24. A fine menhir, called La Longue Pierre (PI. VI.
fig. 1.), stands on the estate of Les Paysans. Mr. Mansell will
preserve it.
St. Andreufs Parish,
No. 25. A tumulus, named La Houffue Fauque, in this parish
is being gradually removed by the proprietors when they re-
quire earth. Here portions of several celts and rubbers have
been picked up by Mr. Lukis, and on the tumulus an iron qpur
was found. The name is a corruption of ^' humus/' earth, and
"foctis/' a hearth. This and the following have generally been
considered to have served as watch-stations.
St. Martin's Parish.
No. 26. A tumulus similar to the above has qIso been nearly
destroyed. Its name is La Houffue Hatenai. The proprietor
informed Mr. Lukis that, when a lad, he remembers his father
digging out some urns firom this mound. Hatenai is an Arabic
term for '' knoll ; " but how it became incorporated into the old
Guernsey dialect it is impossible to determine.
Torteval Parish.
No. 27. Tumulus or cairn near Pleinmont Point. A low
cairn on the summit of the highland, supposed to have been
destroyed when a flag-staff was required to be erected on that
point. Several celts and stone instruments have been found
here.
No. 28. In Rocquaine bay is a small island known as Le
Chateau de Rocquaine, or Fort Grey. In the foundations of
this fort numerous urns and other vessels were found ; but no
account remains of its antecedents.
St. Martin's Parish.
No. 29. At Jerbourg Point, pottery has been found in vari-
ous parts. Stone instruments, flint knives and arrow-heads,
have been discovered in the earthworks, which extend from Bay
Portelet on the west to La Baie des Murs near Le Bee du Nez
on the eastern shore, and are in the collection of Mr. Lukis.
In Jacob's ' Annals of the Norman Isles,' it is stated (p. 47y)
that there is a smaller Druids' altar in the Yale Churchyard.
This must be an error, as there is nothing of the kind ; but a
large boulder near the west end of the church has been thought
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in the Channel Islands. 57
by the vulgar to bear a resemblance to an altar. In the parish
of St. Peter Port, no stone remains are to be now found,
although the names of several places near the town, stiU retained,
are sufficiently significant, and above a dozen celts and stone
instruments have been found in the parish within the last fifty
vears. The following are some of the old names still revered
by an ancient and rude people : —
1. La Pocquelaye.
1. La Longue Pierre.
2. La Petite Longue Pierre.
2. La Pocquelaye du has.
8. La Grande Pocquelaye.
4. La Pocquelaye Normanville.
Les Bocquettes, on which a windmill existed in the reign of
Elizabeth. It fell into bad repair; and application was made
for its reconstruction on La Pierre de Uhyvreusey probably a
menhir. This mill stood where Victoria Tower now stands.
Near De Havilland Hall is an estate called Les Grands Cour-
tils ; and on part of it, overlooking La Grande Pocquelaye and
Le Longue Bocque and Rocquettes, is a spot to which the term
Le Trifled is still attached. In this neighbourhood indications
of some structures have been observed ; and three or four celts
and an amulet from this locality are in the museum of Mr.
Lukis. There are also traces of small props or menhirs in the
direction of this Trepied ; and it appears as if there were some
connexion between this spot and La Tintel-lais field, where two
stone axe-heads were found. This spot, Le Trepied, can be
seen from the opposite hill, called La Rocque a Vor, where four
fine axe-heads were discovered. Several stone graves were
opened by Mr. Isemonger in the parishes of St. Sampson and
the Yale, about the year 1842 ; but no account of them or their
locality exists. Several of the stone-mills, or querns and mul-
lers, firom them are in Mr. Lukis's Museum.
Herm.
Before the year 1838, the island of Herm was not known
to possess any ancient remains. In that year, however, Mr.
Lukis paid a sketching visit to the little-frequented spot ; and
his experienced eyes immediately detected indications of stone
structures, of which the cap-stones had been removed^ by the
quarrymen then engaged upon the spot. Five or six sites were
noted by him at the time ; and as soon as leisure permitted, he
set to work to explore these localities. It was not until 1841
that he was able to commence this examination, when he ob-
tained a portion of the farmhouse, through the kindness of Mr.
P. Falla, then proprietor.
The principad sites are mostly in the north half of the island.
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58 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
on three hills^ called respectively Le Monceau, Le Grand Monceau,
and Le Petit Monceau, and on the sandy plain at their foot.
On the 10th August^ 1841^ Mr. Lukis and his party com-
menced exploring the kist on the Petit Moncean, not far from
the stone circle (PL X. fig. 3). The numerons masses of bones
discovered in this kist appear to have been brought thither and
deposited within it^ after the maceration of the bodies dse-
where. This likewise appears to have been the case in another
kist, where, under one of the large stones lying within the area
of a small peristalith, or circle, were found dry sand, limpet-
shells, and ten adult skulls, arranged in two sets of five at either
end, and disposed in an accurately quincuncial order. During
Mr. Lukis's absence, these skulls were despoiled of their teeth
by an enterprising dentist who happened to be a guest of the
proprietor. He found the enamel to be of such superior quality
that he thought they would make excellent false teeth ; and it is
therefore not improbable that, after having done their duty in a
Celtic skull, they may have performed a second tour of duty in
an Anglo-Saxon one.
The two cromlechs on the sandy plain were soon after un-
covered, in which bones and pottery, in fragments, with several
urns in excellent order, were discovered. The circle or peristalith
on the western side of Le Petit Monceau, with the cromlech on
Le Monceau, and several others on the Mielles, or sandy plain,
were likewise examined, and planned out, and described in
Mr. Lukis's ' Collectanea Antiqua,' under the article " Herm.''
In all twelve localities sepulchral remains were discovered.
Over many of these the sand has again drifted, obliterating all
but the bare tracings of them. Amongst others remaining
visible is a portion of a large circle tolerably defined, with
approaches to it somewhat similar to the one at L'Ancresse,
Guernsey ; within its perimeter, to the N.E., is the kist (PI. V.
fig. 2, and PI. X. fig. 6). It would occupy too much space in
this report to describe each structure separately and minutely.
A list of them is therefore given in the synoptical chart {vide
also plans in PI. X.) .
There is a large kitchen-midden, portions of which are being
continually washed away by the tide ; and this has lately been
described by Mr. J. W. Flower, F.G.S.
Two smaller specimens of these middens are to be fotmd in
Jedthou, also on the coast, but at a higher elevation.
Serk.
In Serk there remains only a small portion of what was onoe
apparently a kist. Situate in Little Serk, i. e. the southern-
most portion of the island, almost cut off by the Coup^ from
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'^^''■)i'.^r'^<y
in the Channel Islands. 59
the mam island^ these few stones still exist near some old tin-
and copper-mines now abandoned. In digging near an old em-
bankment— ^perhaps an ancient fortification — several celts, mul-
lets, &c. of rude type have been found. They are mostly in
the possession of Mr. W. Collings, the present Seigneur of the
island^ who takes the greatest interest in archaeology.
Jersey.
St Martin's Parish.
No. 1. Cromlech at AnnevUIe (PI. II., and PL VIII. fig. 4).
Up to the year 1848, the only visible portion of this megalithic
structure was a single huge flat block of granite, measuring 15
feet long, 10 ft. wide, and 3 ft. in thick, situated apparently on a
heap of rubbish, and known to the country-people under the name
of the Pocquelaye or "fairy stone." During the year 1848, how-
ever, Mr. Fauvel, at that time the proprietor, commenced exca-
vations around and under this stone, removing the accumulated
earth and soil of what perhaps had formed an artificial tumulus.
This large block of stone was then found to be a cap-stone,
resting upon five large side-blocks (only four of which, however,
it actually touched) arranged in a semicircular position, whilst
four other similar blocks almost completed the circle, forming
the large western chamber of a cromlech*.
Adjoining the large chamber, there now remain vestiges of
two secondary chambers which were at the same time uncovered,
whilst a smaller cap-stone was thrown down and other blocks
of stone displaced by the ruthless searchers for treasure-trove.
What vessels or instruments were found during this search, I
have been unable to discover ; but I believe I am right in stating
that the majority of relics found were sold to the British Mu-
seum ; whether they can be identified there, or not^ I cannot say.
Things remained in this state until last year, when the Vicar
of Yeddingham (Yorkshire), with the assistance of labour from
the neighbouring Naval School, proceeded to further excavate
the mound still surrounding the cromlech^ and proceeding east-
ward uncovered several more chambers, with an avenue of
smaller stones, apparently leading to the large western chamber.
In common with all the Channel-Island cromlechs, this structure
exhibits intentional orientation. The general features of this
monument are readily comprehended from the accompanying
plan and elevation, and will be seen to correspond closely in form
and dimensions with the neighbouring cromlech at Mont Vh6
in the adjoining parish (PI. VIII. fig. 5). The dimensions of
* Is it not possible that originally this circle, 11 feet in diameter, was
eomplete, with a second cap-stone similar in proportions to the one above
mentioned to cover it in ?
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60 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
the cromlech are as follow : — Extreme length 44 feet^ diameter
of western chamber 11 feet, breadth of eastern avenue 8 feet,
height of side blocks at west end 5 feet 6 inches, diminishing
gradually at east end to 4 feet and 3 feet 6 inches. The origincd
walls of the central portion of this cromlech (which I take origi-
nally to have been of a bottle-shape, like that at Mont UbS)
have apparently been disturbed by subsequent comers, who have
made side-kists from the blocks which formerly were part of the
main body of the structure. In some of these side-kists parts
of human skeletons were found. The Rev. G. F. Porter, not
satisfied with the simple exposure of the stones of which this
elaborate structure consists, judged it necessary to restore the
dilapidated ruin, and the small cap-stone was replaced as nearly
as possible in its original position. One stone was lying pro-
strate some feet away from where it now stands. The Messrs.
Fauvel, who were present when it was thrown down, differed as
to the spot on which it originally stood ; but ultimately it was
resolved to re-erect this stone in the position where it now rests^
in accordance with the views of the younger Fauvel.
At the narrow eastern entrance to the cromlech were found
portions of two exterior circular walls (shown in PL II. and
PI. VIII. fig. 4), the inner one arranged so as to allow an
entrance to the eastern avenue. Both these walls were mostly
pulled down and built up again under the direction of Mr.
Porter ; and four small vertical stones were found on the southern
side of the inner wall, probably part of it. Only a small por-
tion of the inner wall, where it joins the eastern entrance to the
cromlech on the north side, is left intact ; the outer wall has,
unfortunately, been broken so as to break the circle, and the
two ends (if I may so express it) turned inwards, so as to allow
of easy entrance by visitors {ladies I presume), who otherwise
must have had to climb over this wall of loose stones. For-
merly, no doubt, there were two circles, but whether concentric
or excentric it does not appear easy to decide ; at present the
larger portions of them are still covered over with soU.
No. 2. In the same parish, is the small cromlech Le Coupe-
ron, which stands on a small promontory between Douet de la
mer and Saie harbour. Close to it is a small battery and maga-
zine, built during the French war, and in the construction of
which it is to be feared that many of the stones then composing
the cromlech were broken and used. It is described in Falle's
' History of Jersey,' as follows : — ^^ It consists of twenty-one
stones, set on end in the form of an oval. Within this oval
are fourteen others, in two straight rows, seven of a side, which
sustain three large flags, lying close and touching one another,
and may be supposed to have made one altar 18 feet in length.''
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in the Channel hlands.
61
The next record I find of this cromlech is a drawing by Mr.
Lukis, made about 1848, with marginal notes (PL IX. fig. 3),
when it apparently consisted of an outer circle, 10 paces long by
4 broad, containing twenty-two stones ; the cromlech itself had
then eleyen props supporting three cap-stones, and two other
stones, whether cap-stones or not was doubtful. Mention is made
also of two stones at the south, and one at the north end ; but
what portion of the cromlech these formed seems undecided.
Last year this cromlech was examined, cleared, and restored
through the exertions of the Rev. G. F. Porter*. The follow-
ing comparative Table shows the diflferent states of the cromlech
as described by Falle, Lukis, and Porter : —
Enumaration of stones composing tho i
cromle<^, according to |
Falle,
1820?
Lukisy
1848.
Porter,
1869.
Number of cap-stones j^^S^' •;;;;; [
\ north side
3
"¥
7
*2i"
8
2
ii "
22"'
3
7
10
9
1
18
Number of props < south side
( west side
Outer circle
Other fltones. doubtful
Total
38
41
45
Mr. Liukis has drawn my attention to the cap-stone, as now
Kg. 2.
Original side-prop, now fifth cap-itonef of Le Coiiperon cromlecb, Jenej.
placed fifth from the western end. His son has observed, on
♦ See Appendix, p. 08. rf^n^n]o
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62 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
examination, that this atone (see woodcut, fig. 2, and plan, PI.
IX. fig. 2) has been carefully hollowed out by the hand of man,
and in every way resembles similar stones which have formed
props or dividing-stones of chambers in the Brittany cromlechs
— two stones, each with a semicircular aperture, forming an
entrance through which it would be possible to crawl. If this
theory be true, which I doubt not, then this stone, which is now
a cap-stone, could not originally have been a cap-stone. Whe-
ther the restored cromlech (PL IX. fig. 2) is a good represen-
tation of the original, it is not for me to judge.
St. demenfs Parish.
No. 8. Cromlech at Mont Ub6 (PI. V. fig. 4; PL VIII.
fig. 5) . The side-props and partition-stones of this cromlech, for
years past, have alone survived the general demolition of such
structures ; nor can I find any record of the cap-stones being
recognized as such. It is probable that they were regarded as
natural boulders, and broken up by the successive proprietors,
ignorant of the irreparable damage they were committing. Mr.
Rami^, the present proprietor, however, caused excavations to
be made in 1848, by which the original plan of this Celtic
sepulchre was clearly defined* (PL VIII. fig. 5). This monu-
ment stands on the side of a gently sloping hill, at present cul-
tivated as a market-garden — greatly to the disgust of the tenant,
whose potato-plants are trodden down by the tourists who visit
the cromlech.
On comparing the plan taken this year with the one drawn
by Mr. Lukis when first denuded, the absence of several stones
(shaded on the plan) is at once observable, and serves as an
additional illustration to show how these ancient remains, unless
carefully watched, are liable, as it were, to melt away impercep-
tibly and by degrees. . Indeed it is wonderful, considering that
twenty years have elapsed since these stones were uncovered,
that so many remain ; for it is manifestly the interest of the
market-gardener to have these huge stones removed; and, no
doubt, ^m time to. time he and his predecessors have gradu-
ally destroyed them, one by one, in hopes of ultimately demo-
lishing the entire structure.
Of the four chambers, which (when first discovered) were well
defined, it will be seen that only one remains intact. Another
is indicated by two pillars, whilst the stones which marked out
* Of the same type as the cromlech called the Pocqnelaje at Anneville.
The dimensions of this cromlech are as follow :— Extreme length 42 feet,
i.e, 2 feet shorter than the one at Anneville; hreadth of western chamber
lOi feet; eastern avenue 4 feet ; height of pillars 6 feet at west end, at east
end 5 feet, and 4 feet 6 inches.
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lit the Channel Islands. 63
tbe remainder have totally disappeared. The lower half only of
an upright pillar remains^ the workmen having already com-
mence breaking this pillar when Mr. Lukis was fortunately
enabled to put a stop to the proceeding.
The stones at the eastern chamber have been removed^ and
others substituted^ probably from one of the western chambers^
so as to block the entrance at the time when this cromlech was
used as a pig-stye.
From an inspection of the original plan, there appear to have
been several side-kists, similar to those existing on either side of
the cromlech of Du Thus in Guernsey.
Mr. Lukis has drawn my attention to the fact that the
summits of the stone pillars have been undoubtedly worked
and shaped by hand, probably to adapt them to the proper
height for the superincumbent cap-stone. I cannot but regard
the exterior slab on the south side as a stone to block up the
entrance into the tomb, through which subsequent interments
may have been made, or periodical visits effected for the purpose
of replenishing the offerings of food to the dead*.
I am informed that there were, and most likely still are,
traces of a peristalith; but there were no signs of it when I
visited the spot, and the ground being under cultivation pre-
vented verification of the fact. The proprietor, Mr. C. W.
Bamie, will certainly preserve these interesting remains during
his lifetime.
No. 4. In an orchard belonging to Mr. Le Jeune, dose by
the above-mentioned cromlech, there is a small menhir, known
to the neighbourhood under the name of La Pierre Blanche,
which calls for no especial notice.
St. Heller's Parish.
No. 5. Ville-Nouaux Cromlech. — Close by the much-fre-
quented thoroughfare of St. Aubin's Road, on the right-hand
side on leaving St. Heller's, after passing the first martello
tower, is the locality known by the name of Ville Nouaux.
Here, in a piece of waste land, over which the sea-sand has
drifted in heaps, here and there covered with sparse vegetation,
a ballast-hole was formed ; and as the sand was carted away to
the shipping, some large granite stones were half exposed, two
of them being dragged away from their positions and ** cracked
up'' as road-metal for the adjoining highway. Fortunately the
ballast-hole fell into disuse some three years since, and the other
stones remained unnoticed.
In May 1869 these stones were examined, and found to form
* Compare similar apertures at Le Couperon, Ville Nouaux, Jersey (PI. IX.
fig. 1), Herm (PI. X. fig. 1), &c
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6 A Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
a portion of a megalithic structure^ from the interior of which
the accumulated sand and soil were carefully removed, by leave
of M. de Quetteville, the proprietor.
As now exposed to view, this cromlech appears to be an elon-
gated alUe couverte, nearly due east and west, measuring 35 feet
in length. Its sides, about 4 feet apart, are as nearly as possi-
ble parallel, although there are indications of the avenue being
narrowed towards its eastern extremity, as we should expect to
find. The side-blocks of stone average from 4 to 5 feet in
height, and number eleven on the northern, and seven on the
southern side, the western end being closed by a fine single slab.
The interstices between these blocks are roughly filled up with
irregularly-shaped smaller stones, evidently built in to prevent the
exterior earth and soil of the superimposed tumulus from falling
into the sepulchral grotto (PL V. fig. 3; PL IX. fig. 1).
There must have been formerly at least nine cap-stones ; of
these, two have been removed, as observed above, whilst the
whole fabric appears to have been tilted, with an inclination
to the south, probably caused either by the unequal pressure of
the accumulated sand-drift on the northern side, or by the
removal of the ballast from its southern supports. It is diffi-
cult to determine whether all the cap-stones are in their original
positions, or whether some of them have not slipped between
the side blocks from their summits.
On the south, side, under the second cap-stone, between two
props is an aperture which I consider to indicate a similar in-
tention as the one mentioned in the account of the Mont-Ub£
cromlech. The sixth cap-stone has evidently slipped down, so
as to form a partition-wall between the eastern and western
portions — ^indeed, so much so as to make it almost doubtful
whether it is a cap-stone or really a dividing-block. I think the
supposition that it is a cap-stone, however, the more likely. On
removing the sand-drift, at a depth of 2 feet a fine black soil was
reached, and this was removed carefully ; but the usual layer of
limpet-shells (so universally met with in the cromlechs through-
out the Channel Islands) was wanting, indicating, according to
Mr. Lukis, that the interments are of a secondary period.
At a depth of 4 feet, in the north-west comer, fragments of
pottery were first found, red and black, and a pavement of flat
sea- worn pebbles apparently indicated the bottom of the vault.
As Mr. Lukis has found several layers of interments with simi-
lar pavements in the Guernsey cromlechs, it is not improbable
that lower layers and remains may yet be found on further search
being made. As the work proceeded, groups of urns, in sets
of three, were discovered ; along the north side nine of these
were preserved more or less perfect; in one case a smaller urn
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in the Channel Islands. 65
was enclosed within a larger one. Some of these urns were in
a fine state of preseryation ; and, with the exception of two*, they
are all in the possession of the owner. It must be observed that
all these nms, when discovered, were surrounded hj flat stones
placed vertically around them, and above them, so as to form
small kists; but they were so disarranged that it was almost im-
possible to determine the exact way in which they had been
placed. Some of the jars seemed purposely inserted in the
intervals between the side-blocks.
Nearly in the centre of the cromlech was a flat stone in a ver-
tical position, and close to it was found a small stone amulet
with two holes drilled through it. Here and there the earth
about it was discoloured, as if with decomposed bone ; but there
were no very significant traces of osseous interment. No marks
or holes have been found on any of the stones composing this
cromlech. Much yet remains for examination concerning this
structure, and there is little doubt that exterior chambers
may be found ; for the eastern extremity is still covered with
sand.
No. 6. The celebrated cromlech which formerly stood on
the present site of Fort Regent was removed to Henley-on-
Thames, and needs no further allusion here.
St. Brelade's Parish.
No. 7. On a farm belonging to Mr. Ramie, in the wild
part of the island known as Vingtaine de la Moye, is a fine
menhir which goes by the name of Le Quesnel. A curious fact
may be noticed relative to this monolith, viz. that it is so neatly
balanced that when the wind blows high it shakes distinctly, so
that an iron ring was driven into the top in order to make fast
a guy, to steady it, when a small windmill used to be fixed to
the top. By scraping away the earth accumulated at its base
the flat edge of a spade can be passed underneath the centre of
this monument, between it and the flat rock on which it stands.
Although Mr. Rami6 is willing to preserve this monolith, if
possible, yet the ground within a few feet is being quarried, and
so little control apparently can be exercised over the quarrymen
that any day Mr. Ramie may find this fine landmark destroyed.
No. 8. About half a mUe from Le Quesnel, and directly
above La Corbiere Point, is a fine single stone Dolmen, called
the Table des Marthes. It measures 12 feet by 6 feet by 3 feet.
It is supported on two small cairns, and Mr. Ahier found some
bronze instruments beneath it: he does not say what; but
probably they were wedges. A great deal of the granite on the
• Two urns were given by Mr. Quetteville to the Rev. F.Porter, who was
present at the exhumation.
Digitized by VjOOy IC
66 Lieut. Oliver — On Prehistoric Remains
surface of the ground about here is being broken up, and at
any time this dolmen may disappear.
Besides these, there are several more obscure remains which
may here be briefly alluded to, such as indications of tumuli,
viz. : — Le Bequi near Plemont, in St. Ouen ; the mound under the
tower called La Hougue Bie, in St. Saviour's ; and another, also
in St. Saviour's, near the highroad, not far from the church.
Again^ there is another conspicuous rock, falsely called a menhir,
on the Quenvais.
There is some rumour of a trilithon called the PrS des irois
roches having existed close to the sea at St. Ouen ; but I could
find no trace of it, nor could I find any one who knew of an
alignment said to be extant some years ago at Vinchelez de Bos,
So also I am informed that a dolmen was discovered at St. Ouen
in 1839, on les Monts Orantez, in a field called la Grande Place.
There now exists a doubtful demi-dolmen in the northern part
of Trinity parish, called the Roche h la F6e, close to the sea, east
of Petit Port ^ but I was unable to visit it. The name certainly
indicates a Celtic monument.
At Dicq, Havre de Pas, it is said that a circle and cromlech
formerly existed ; but this is all built over. So also the name of
La Pocquelaye, at Bouge Bouillon, indicates the existence of a
cromlech in by-gone days.
A rocking-stone is stated to have formerly stood at Les Landes
Pallot, in St. Saviour's Parish ; and there is a stone worth exa-
mining on Mr. T. Lerrier's farm at Grouville.
The Rocque Berg, or ^' Witches' rock," is simply a rock on
which are said to be the marks of cloven hoofs ; they are merely
the holes caused by the decomposition of the softer portions of
the granite.
I ought not, perhaps, to omit mention of certain caves said to
exist in the hill over the Couperon cromlech. They are noticed
by Falle as follows : — '^ In the side of the same hill are caverns
wrought leading into one another, the entrance 3 feet high and
2 wide; but for what use intended I am imable to say." From
this accoimt it appears as if they were artificial ; but no one in
their neighbourhood appeared to know of their locality, and my
own visit was too brief to allow of a systematic search; they
may be worth examining.
Alderney.
Aldemey has suffered almost more than the neighbouring
islands as to the destruction of its megalithic structures. Mr.
May, who has for many years been in charge of the Admiralty
works in connexion with the breakwater in this island, writes to
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in the Channel Islands, 67
me^ " For many years past this island has been infested with
the genus homo, species ^ navvy/ who make it their business
on Sundays to destroy all such landmarks as those you are look-
ing for/'
And he is quite right ; for hardly any remain^ with the excep-
tion of part of a cromlech^ near Fort Tourgie, called the " Druids'
altar/' and two dilapidated cromlechs by Corblets Ray. At
least fivQ cromlechs and six tumuli (chambered) are described as
existing in 1847 by Mr. Lukis*. But since that account was
written^ the island has been covered with modem fortifications^
and almost all vestiges have been removed. I have given a list of
such remains, but I am sorry not to be able to report more fully
on them, from the fact that during my brief visits to this island
I was more or less employed on military duty, and was unable to
afford the time necessary to make a more careful search to iden-
tify the few remains existing. Many of the instruments found
in Aldemey are in the possession of Mr. Lukis ; and I picked up
a portion of a celt myself in a ploughed field near the nunnery.
Conclusion.
There are numberless points of interest connected with these
megaUthic remains, which are, however, beyond the province of
the present paper ; but perhaps I may be allowed to observe
how much I was slruck, during my examination of these monu-
ments, by the remarkable resemblance they bear to the mono-
liths and stone tombs which I had seen in Madagascar, and which
are erected by the hill-tribes of Hovas even at this very day.
Choosing the natural cleavage of the rock (generally granite),
where adapted for their purpose, they light fires of dung
along the line indicated, and then dash water onto the heated
stone, which is thus split, and a huge mass detached. By means
of strong levers, and on rollers of hard wood, with the help of
ropes made from the rofia and other palm-fibres, they manage
to move these rocks over diflScult ground to their position. A
whole tribe of some five hundred men will, perhaps, be engaged
in moving one such stone. Similarly I have recognized an
affinity with the aboriginal Indian tombs in Central America.
Figs. 2 & 3, PI. VI., represent a rudely carved stone now forming
a gate-post in the churchyard of St. Martinis Parish, Guernsey,
which reminded me irresistibly of the stone idols which I had
seen on the island of Momotombita in the Lake of Managua —
the head, shoulders, and arms alone being represented, the re-
maining portion being unhewn and rough.
In conclusion, however, my sole object has been to give as
• See ArcbjBologia, Journal of Association^ April 1847, *' Antiquities of
Aldemey."
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68 Lieut. Olivbr — On Prehistoric Remains
faithful an epitome as possible of all the information I have been
able to collect as to the present state and condition of the pre-
historic remains in the Channel Islands ; nor at present do I
offer any suggestions as to the means to be employed to preserve
those that remain intact. But I cannot conclude without men-
tioning that this Report ought rightly to be considered rather as
Mr. Lukis's than my own ; for it is to Mr. Lukis that I owe the
majority of notes^ plans^ drawings^ &c.^ in fact^ the whole materiel
for this paper^ which has mostly even been put together under
his personal superintendence. Any credit^ therefore^ that it may
deserve is attributable to him^ whilst I must blame myself alone
for the shortcomings and faults — ^which I trust will be dealt
with leniently, in consideration of my inexperience.
APPENDIX.
The Opening and Restoration of the Cromlech of Le Couperon.
^'The Rev. P. Porter, vicar of Yeddingham, Yorkshire, a
gentleman who has given much attention to the sepulture of the
aborigines of various countries, and who, with the Rev. Canon
Greenwell, of Durham, has opened and examined many of the
tumuli which abound on the moors and wolds of Yorkshire, is
now a temporary sojourner in the Isle of Jersey. This gentle-
man, true to his instincts as an antiquary, was readily attracted
to the cromlechs still extant in this island. A very cursory
view of these satisfied him that they had been opened, but, ap-
parently, unskilftilly explored. One was said to remain intact.
Mr. Porter thought otherwise, but resolved to reopen it. This
cromlech is situated on the north-east part of the island, on a
promontory called or known as Le Couperon. The promontory
projects considerably into the sea, and has perhaps an altitude of
some 70 or 80 feet from the level of high water. The locality
here chosen as the last resting-place of our unknown friends is
a proof of good taste, and shows a degree of refinement for
which we are scarcely prepared to give them credit. From the
east end of the cromlech is seen the bold headland of La Coup^,
and there the eye passing over the sea rests on the coast line of
Normandy. The sim gives to the cromlech his first radiance,
the western slope again admits his rays as he goes down ; and
here warmth and light and cheerfulness pervade the tomb, and
take from it much of that sadness we are so prone to associate
with death. Let us now give a concise account of Mr. Porter s
operations. In July last he assembled a party of friends, in-
cluding the Rev. W. Ick, Col. Rynd, Capt. Evison, R. N., Capt.
P. Gaudin, Mr. W.G. F. Porter, &c., with the proprietor of the
soil, and proceeded to an examination of the ancient monument.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in the Channel Islands, 69
It was found in a state of great dilapidation ; some of the up-
right stones had fallen and thrown off the transverse blocks,
briers, ivy, and the rankest vegetation had taken possession of
the whole exterior, and the monument had become, to the casual
observer, a mere mass of confusion. When cleared externally, it
was found to be surrounded by an oval peristalith. The reve-
rend gentleman having gained access into the interior of the
cromlech, saw at once that it had been previously despoiled.
He, however, carefully removed and sifted the earth, and was
rewarded by finding a few flint flakes and the bottom portion of
a rude urn in small fragments. The reverend gentleman having
satisfied himself as to the previous opening, set about restoring
it to its pristine condition. The space within the peristalith he
did not examine, fearing his newly-executed work might fall in.
We give its dimensions as measured by Mr. Porter. The crom-
lech of ' Le Couperon' lies within a peristalith, and is the only
instance in the island. The circumference of the peristalith is
100 feet, composed of rough blocks of stone about four feet long
by two feet thick, standing about two feet above the soil : they
are not in contact, and eighteen only remain. The position of
the cromlech is (by compass) due east and west. It is 26 feet
9 inches long ; width at east end 2 feet 3 inches, centre 3 feet
6 inches, increasing at west end to 4 feet 4 inches. The crom-
lech consists of nine vertical or supporting -stones on the south
side, and eleven on the north, which are about 3 feet 6 inches
high at the west end, gradually decreasing to about 2 feet at the
east end; these uprights support seven covering -stones, the three
largest being at the west end, measuring : — No. 1, 5 feet 6 inches
long, 5 feet 6 inches wide, 2 feet thick ,* No. 2, 5 feet 10 inches
long, 5 feet 6 inches wide, 2 feet thick ; No. 3, 6 feet 7 inches
long, 5 feet wide, 2 feet thick. The height at west end from
covering-stone to present floor is about 3^ feet. The space be-
tween the peristalith and outside of the vertical stone of the
cromlech is about 3^ feet. Many of the vertical stones had
been displaced, and two only of the transverse or covering stones
out of seven were found in position. The cromlech as it now
stands is worthy of a visit from the antiquarian tourisf *.
EXPLANATION OF PLATES n.-X.
Platb IL
Pocquelaye Cromlech, Anneville, Jersey. (See plan, PI. Vm. fig. 4.)
* Two beautifully-executed photomphs have been taken of it, and may
be obtained at the establishment of Messrs. Asplett and Green, 18^ Beresfora
Street.
Digitized by
Google
70 Lieut. Oliver — On the Channel-Island Remains.
Plate III.
Fig. 1. Kiflt-vaen at L'Ancresae, Guernsey. (See plan, PI. VII. fig. 6.)
2. J La Mare aux Mauves, Guernsey. (See plan, PI. VIII. ^g. 1.)
Plate IV.
Fig. 1. Cromlech, Le Tr^pied, Guernsey, ^ee plan, PL VII. fig. 4.)
2. , Le Grand Monceau, Herm. (See plan, PI. X. fig. 2.)
Plate V.
Fig. I. Remains of a Cromlech, La Roche qui sonne, Guernsey. (See plan,
PL \TII. fig. 3.)
2. Eist-vaen at Les Mielles, Herm. (See plan, PI. X. fig. 6.)
3. Cromlech at Ville Nouaux, Jersey. (See plan, PL IX. fig. I.)
4. at Mont Uh^, Jersey. (See plan, PL VIIL fig. 6.)
Plate VI.
Fig. I. Menhir, La Longue Pierre, Les Paysans, Guernsey.
2. Rudely carved stone now forming a gate-post in the chiirchyard of
St Martin's Parish, Guernsey. Side view.
3. The same, front view.
4. Menhir, Le Crocq, Guernsey.
Plate VH.
Fig. 1. Plan of cromlech at L'Ancresse, Guernsey.
2. Plan of cromlech, D^hus, Guernsey.
3. Plan of cromlech, Le Creux des F^es, Guernsey.
4. Plan of cromlech, Le Tr^pied, Guernsey.
5. Plan of kist-vaen at L'Ancresse, Guernsey.
Plate VIII.
Fig. I. Plan of Idst-vaen. La Mare aux Mauves, Guernsey.
2. Plan of kist, Tomoeau du Grand Sarazin, Guernsey.
3. Plan of remains of cromlech, La Roche qui sonne, Guernsey.
4. Plan of Pocquelaye cromlech, Jersey.
5. Plan of cromlech at Mont Ub6, Jersey.
Plate IX.
Fig. 1. Plan of cromlech at Ville Nouaux, Jersey.
2. Plan of Le Couperon cromlech, Jersey, restored.
3. Le Couperon as it appeared in 1848.
Plate X.
Fig. 1. Plan of cromlech at Le Grand Monceau, Herm.
2. Plan of another cromlech at Le Graiid Monceau, Herm.
3. Plan of stone circle at Le Petit Monceau, Herm.
4. Plan of stone circle and kist at Le Monceau, Herm.
5. Plan of stone circle at Le Petit Monceau. HemL
6. Plan of stone circle and kist on Les Mielles, Heim.
N.B. — ^The scale of the plans in Plates VII. and X. is ^if, and that of those
in Plates VHI. and IX. is j^j.
The plans of the cap-stones are shown in dotted lines, and those of the
side-stones in continued lines. The stones shaded have been removed since
1848.
These plates represent only a portion of the large collection of plans and
drawings which accompanic({ the report.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
Journ.Elho.i^'OcPlil
Jii
KISTVAEN AT L'ANTRESSE, GUERNSEY.
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PRESENT
or excavated
ipd or un(
by M. F:
"nd with
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W.Rat
• I*orter.
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[Journ. Ethnol. Soc., Vol. H., to f%ce p. 70.]
PRESENT STATE AND CONDITION OF THOSE STILL EXTANT.
>r exeatrated ; when, and by whom.
ed or uncovered a century ago ;
by M. Fauvel (1848). who sold
and within to the British Ma-
British CJollection, cases 34, 36) ;
uncovered by the Rer. F. Porter,
Kldinghain, in 1868-419.
he Kev. F. Porter, 1868.
No
ly I860, by Lieut. Oliver, R.A.
Porter.
Icnley-on-Thsmes.
W. BamiS in 1848
Ahier ; date unknown ,
If in danger
from
Quarrymen.
«
Yes
No
No
No
Quarry
opened
close
to it.
Yes
If Proprietor
is willing to t
Remsrks.
.The stones which
have been moved
are shaded in the
plans.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes,
d and rifled of its oontenta a long No
iate unknown. The cap-stone was
but in 1830 itwaa replaced by
tin.
i alnnc remain.
,1841.
Examined by F. ?
These remains
will be more
fully described
in a future
supplementary
Beport.
idling to preserve ; but unfortunately in many cases, however willingjized by vjOOg IC
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U
DisctiSsUm, 71
Discussion.
The Honorary Secretary read the following letter from the
Rev. F. Porter in justification of his attempts at restoration : —
" What I did with regard to the Couperon cromlech was this : — 1
cleared away the briers &c. with which it was overgrown, and found
that all the cap-stones, save two, had been displaced, some being on
the north, others on the south side, but all within the peristalith.
" In clearing out the interior I found the vertical stones, which had
been thrust inward; I had merely to raise them upright, and thej were
as nearly as possible in their true position ; I think it was almost
impossible for me to make a mistake nere. The cap-stones were then
placed on their supports, exactly in the order in which I found them,
I did not pick one here and another there, because it would fit and
look better, but replaced them in the order in which they lay, thinking,
from their large size, that they could not have been moved since the
time of their overthrow.
^ I did bring one stone which had been taken a few yards from the
place, and put it as one of the block stones at the west end of the
cromlech. Many of the stones of the peristalith have been taken
away, and used tor building- or road-purposes; not one of those re-
maining was in any way removed or replaced by me.
" And now for a word respecting the * Anneville cromlech.' With
the one or two exceptions I will name, I left every thing as I found it.
I again distinctly deny the charge of replacing the scattered stones in
an arbitrary manner.
'* The walls surrounding this cromlech I was obliged to break
through, in order to remove the interior of the mound. Much, how-
ever, of the original walls was untouched ; to these portions I built up
(according to measure taken before their removal) those portions
which the necessity of the case obliged me to remove.
** I replaced a cover-stone over one of the kists on the north side,
raised upright one of the stones of a kist on the south side, which had
given way from the removal of the soil at the back, and brought in,
from the base of the moimd, a stone which had formed part of a kist
on the south side, and replaced it in the position it formerly occupied,
being assured as to this fact, as also in the case of the cover-stone on
the north, by the person who some thirty years back opened part of
this cromlech.
" As many of the stones had been destroyed and taken away, I
thought, by showing the nature of the monument, this might for the
future be prevented ; my object was to preserve, not destroy, or to
make a * cooked-up ' structure to please my own taste or fancy."
Mr. J. W. Flower remarked that, if there was any thing to regret
in Lieut. Oliver's able Beport, it was that it was not made a little more
full by adding further particulars of the objects found in the dolmens.
All these me^ithic structures seem to be more or less alike as regards
their extemad forms ; and it was therefore chiefiy to the implements,
weapons, and pottery found in them that we must look for indications
of the conditions and modes of life of those who built them.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
72 Lieut. Oliver — On the Channel-Island Remains,
Mr. Flower exhibited the cast of a very beautiful implement in
green jade, being one of seven or eight which Mr. Lukis, sen., had pro-
cured from the Gruenisey dolmens, and which, he observed, indicated a
perfection in this art of which no traces had been elsewhere found.
This implement is eleven inches long, and seven in circumference in
the centre. At one end it forms a sharp hatchet ; and the other is
rounded to a point, and forms a pick-axe, the centre being pierced
to admit a handle, and the sides of this opening being strengthened
by two bands or ribs lefb when the stone was carved. Mr. Flower also
exhibited some small polished implements of granite, brought to an
edge of two facets, and some hand-made bricks or trivets, of a peculiar
form, which he had lately found in examining a kjokken-modding in
the Island of Herm, containing a prodigious quantity of limpet and
other shells. Precisely similar objects had been found by Mr. Lukis
in several of the Channel Islands ; and although it by no means
followed that, because these things were found so near to each
other, the dolmen-builders must also have been the people of the
kjokken-moddings, still it seemed possible, if not probable. Mr.
Lukis had ascertained that trivets or bricks of the same form were
even now in use by the potters of Allahabad, in order to support their
pottery when placed in the kilns. The kjokken-modding also con-
tained several fragments of undoubted Samian ware ; and it would
seem therefore not only that the builders of the dolmens were probably
identical with the kjokken-modding people, but that they also had
some intercourse with the Bomans; and, further, the samd method
of preparing pottery for burning which was in use in Europe at this
remote period was still practised by the potters of India.
Mr. f, W. LrKis, referring to the Eev. F. Porter's letter which had
been read in justification of his so-called reconstruction of some of the
cromlechs in Jersev, remarked that he was sorry that the Sev. gentle-
man had made such an egregious mistake as to replace, in lieu of the
missing cap-stone No. 5 of the Couperon cromlech, a stone (fig. 2,
p. 61) which had been hollowed out on one side, and had origi-
nally formed, with a similarlv hollowed block, an entrance-hole into
the chamber. Examples oi such entrances are to be seen in the
cromlechs at Avening, at Bodmarton, &c., and also in two places in
the chambered barrow of Eerlescant, Brittany.
This hollowed stone which, is the only, example of the kind
hitherto discovered in the Channel Islands, had passed totally unob-
served until Mr. J. W. Lukis visited that island in July last.
In corroboration of Mr. J. "W. Flower's remarks relative to finding
Samian ware in the kitchen-midden in the Island of Herm, Mr.
Lukis mentioned that, in examining the *' Autel des Yardes," L'An-
oresse, Guernsey, in 1848, several pieces of Samian ware were dis-
covered, one of which had been worked in a circular form and per-
forated in the centre, probably to be used as a charm ; of course this
pottery was found at the surface, and not immediately connected with
the earliest deposits. In 1847, Mr. Lukis found in a cromlech near
Hennebont, Brittany, three Boman coins of the Lower Empire. It
it more than probable that many of these localities were not only
held sacred by subsequent races, but made use of by t hem^^ ,
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G. Busk — On an Ancient Calvariajrom China. 73
Mr. Hyde Clabks said, with reference to the age of the kitchen-
midden in Guernsey, that it did not follow, because the pottery was
of the class called by us Samian, that the period was Roman. Re
had found the like pottery in the kitchen-midden pointed out by
him on Mount Fagus, at Smyrna. It was possible tuat the pottery
might haye been imported earlier than the Boman period. He tnought
it very desirable that the theoretical matter in the paper should
be turned to account. He considered the Council might endeavour
to get the States of the Islands to extend their protection to public
objects, and to give greater facilities for the conversion of these
monuments into heirlooms. With regard to the favourite assign-
ment of these megalithic remains to the Celts, he knew of no justi-
fication for it. Their distribution is not conformable to the Celtic
area, and the Celtic nomenclature is not distinctive or historical,
but meaning only ** long stones," ** great stones,*' &c., which forms
usuaUy imply that the monuments belonged to a much earlier popu-
lation.
Col. A. Lane Fox observed that he had found hand-bricks of the
same kind as those mentioned by Mr. Elower in a pit near St. Peters,
Broadstairs, associated with Boman pottery and with evidence of the
fabrication of flint implements : the contents of this pit had been
described in the first number of the Society's Journal for the year
1869. He did not concur with Mr. Hyde Clarke in thinking that
Samian pottery, in this country, could be attributed to pre-Koman
times. He thought that the occurrence of Samian ware, wherever
found, might be regarded as a proof of Boman occupation. It was
not, however, to be inferred from the presence of this class of pottery
in the kitchen-middens referred to by Mr. Flower, that other lutchen-
middens were Boman, but only those in which the Boman pottery
occurred. A kitchen-midden might be of any date ; the period could
only be determined by the characters of the associated remains ; and
many were proved to belong to the early stone age. At Bichborough,
in Kent, examples of kitchen-middens might be seen belonging ex-
clusively to the Boman age.
Ordinary Meeting^ December 218t^ 1869.
Pbofbssor Huxlet, LL.D., F.B.S., FreHdent, in the Chair.
New Members. — Bev. James Simpson ; George Campbell^
Esq. ; Dr. Thomas Nicholas, M.A., P.G.S.
The following paper was read by the author : —
VIII. Description of and Bemarks upon an Ancient Calvaria
from China, which has been supposed to be that o/ Confucius.
By George Bcsk, Esq., F.B.S.
Amongst the various curiosities of the Great Exhibition of 1862,
there was scarcely any more striking and interesting, of its kind.
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74 G. Busk — On an Ancient Calvariafrom China.
than an object in the " Department of Goldsmiths' Work and
Jewellery/' in the Chinese Court. This consisted of the upper
portion of a human skull^ richly mounted in gold and jewels.
The object is briefly described and figured in Mr. Waring's
' Masterpieces of Industrial Art ' (vol. iii. pi. 291). " The skull
is placed on a triangular stand of pure gold^ and rests on three
very roughly shaped gold heads ; the cover, also of pure gold,
is richly ornamented with minute patterns in low relief, and is
studded with small precious stones. The ornament [ornamen-
tation ?] itself presents nothing peculiar, the principal portion
of it being formed by the usual conventional mode of represent-
ing clouds or sky, typical perhaps of the region to which the
soul of the deceased had flown.''
In the same work it is also stated that the object was taken
from the Summer Palace of the Emperor by one of Fane's
Cavalry, and at the time of the Exhibition was the property of
P. M. Tait, Esq.
Of this extraordinary and beautiful piece of Chinese work-
manship nothing now remains except the portion of skull upon
whose preservation and adornment such great pains and art had
been bestowed. With the most astounding stupidity the gold
has been melted down for its mere weight as bullion, and one of
the most interesting and curious relics of Chinese art and history
has thus been irretrievably lost.
The remaining relic has lately come into the hands of my
friend Mr. Mummery, with whose permission it is now laid
before the Society.
From such a small portion of course little can be deduced as
to the general characters of the entire calvaria. But it is suffi-
cient to show that the individual to whom it belonged was a man
probably advanced in life, and, so far as his bones were con-
cerned, of delicate make. The cranial bone generally is thin ;
and scarcely any appearance of a diploe remains. The sutures,
though distinct enough, are closed, and the lower portions of
the coronal on either side completely obliterated.
1. Norma lateralis (PI. XI. fig. 1) . — On the side view the skull
presents an elevated vertex, the summit of which corresponds to
about the middle of the sagittal suture. The upper part of the
frontal bone is somewhat depressed.
2. Norma verticalis (Fig. 2). — ^The vertical aspect presents an
oval outline, slightly compressed at the situation of the coronal
suture.
3. Norma frontalis (Fig, 3). — In the front view the outline
is somewhat pyramidal, a form that is still more manifest in
the
4. Norma occipitalis (Fig. 4) or occipital aspect.
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G. Busk — On an Ancient Calvaria Jram China. 75
The dimensions of the calvaria are as under : —
Length 6"-8
Breadth 5"'8
Height 8"0
Least frontal width . . . S^-G
Greatest frontal width . . 4"-5
As the skull has been sawn across in a plane running above
the glabella and through the upper part of the squamous bones
and of the supraoccipital^ something should be added to the
above length for that of the entire skuU^ which I conse-
quently estimate at about 7". This would give a latitudinal or
cephalic index of '757. Comparing this and the other measure*
ments above given with those taken from nine Chinese skulls^
I find some important differences.
For instance^ the mean cephalic index of the Chinese skulls
is '807 ; the maximum being -868^ and the minimum '746. The
iqean width of the nine Chinese skulls is 5^*71 ; the greatest
being 5"'8^ and the least 5"'4. The mean anterior or least
frontal width in the Chinese is 8"'72. the greatest being 4"'0^
and the least 8"'5 ; whilst the mean of the posterior or greatest
frontal width is 4^''7, the widest measuring 4"'8, and the nar-
rowest 4"*6.
The present calvaria therefore would seem to differ very con-
siderably from the average or typical Chinese skull^ although
it may in all respects but one^ perhaps^ be comprehended within
the limits of variation of that form.
It is^ in the first place^ dolichocephalic^ whilst^ with one excep-
tion out of nine^ the Chinese skuUs may be termed brachyce-
phalic^ the only other exception being that of a Chinese pirate^
whose cephalic index is '770, and who may not improbably have
been of a more mixed race than the inhabitants of the interior.
It will also be observed that in the frontal transverse dia-
meters the calvaria only equals the narrowest among the Chinese,
and is notably less than the mean of them. In its extreme
or parietal width, again, it is absolutely narrower than any of
the Chinese skulls.
On the whole, therefore, it appears to me, if any reliance can
be placed on such scanty data, that the so-called skull of Con-
fucius must have differed considerably from that of his fellow-
countrymen, and that it is not improbably of foreign origin.
But besides the craniological characters there are some other
points in the specimen which appear to me worthy of remark
in an archaeological or antiquarian sense, and which may even-
tually perhaps be found to lead to its identification.
The interior offers nothing of remark, except that it exhibits
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76 6. Busk — On an Ancient Calvariajrom China.
here and there small thin patches of what appears to be wax,
or some similar substance, by which, doubtless, the gold with
which it is said to have been lined was cemented to the bone.
The outer surface is everywhere highly polished ; and to effect
this, some thickness of the outer table of the bone has apparently
been removed. The skull seems to have been very carefully
sawn, in the plane above described.
The sawn edge, also, has afterwards been ground, as it would
seem, on a flat surface, so as to be quite true. This was doubt-
less done to ensure the close fitting of the gold did.
But the most remarkable circumstance, as regards the outer
surface, remains to be described, and which, so far as I am
aware, appears to have been hitherto overlooked. It consists
in the existence, in three places, of figures in faint relief, which,
though easily escaping observation on the bone itself, are very
distinctly seen in a plaster-cast of it, upon which, indeed, I first
noticed them. One of the figures is placed at about the middle
of the frontal bone, and the others on either side, just behimd
the parietal eminences.
The frontal figure (PI. XI. fig. 5) is obviously a written cha-
racter of some kind, whilst the others can only, I should ima-
gine, be regarded as ornaments. That on the left side (fig. 6) is
very distinct, and of a trefoil shape ; and that on the right side,
though nearly obliterated, is seen on close inspection in a
plaster-cast Ito have been of the same form. There also appear
to be traces of a figure (fig. 7) of some kind on the back of the
skull, just above the termination of the sagittal suture. These
are so faint, however, that it can only be doubtfully surmised
that the figure was originally of a horse-shoe shape, with the
points of the crescent expanded into more or less circular disks.
These figures, as before said, are in slight relief; but whilst
that on the forehead is apparently altogether raised above the
general surface-level, the others seem to have been produced by
a mere local excavation of the immediately surrounding surface.
As the chief interest of the relic in its present condition ap-
pears to lie in these curious markings upon it, I had recourse
to my friend Mr. J. Fergusson for an explanation of their mean-
ing. He took much interest in the matter, and has kindly
bestowed considerable pains in its elucidation. But although
he at once recognized the Sanskrit character of the frontal in-
scription, and was assured that it was not of a Chinese type, he
was unable to define its exact significance. He thereupon con-
sulted two distinguished oriental scholars, who are especially
skilled in the interpretation of ancient inscriptions — Mr. £.
Thomas and General Cunningham, — ^who both agree in regard-
ing the frontal monogram as representing an initial A of the
* Digitized by LjOOQIC
G. Busk — On an Ancient Calvariafrom China. 77
Tibetan form of Sanskrit in use about the seventh and eighth
centuries of the present era. The correctness of this determi-
nation will at once be obvious to any one who regards the cha-
racter placed above fig. 5, and which is copied fix)m General
Cunningham^s letter to Mr. Feipisson. And I may remark
that the letter appears in precisely the same form in plate xxxix.
vol. ii. of Mr. Thomases edition of * Prinsep's Essays on Indian
Antiquities ; ' and from another plate in that volume it would
seem that the same letter^ or one scarcely distinguishable from
it^ is in use in Tibet at the present time. Mr. Thomas has
ako pointed out that a similar form of A occurs in an ancient
Mongol inscription^ of which an account is given under the
title of " Versuch iiber eine alte Mongolische Inschrift/' by
V. H. C. V. d, Gabelentz^ in the ' Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des
Morgenlandes/ vol. ii. p. 1^ and plates I & 2^ where it is stated
that the inscription in question was discovered^ with several others
of the same kind, in China in the year 1618 ; and it was assigned,
by the Chinese antiquary who attempted to decipher it, to the
age of the Mongol Emperor Youan, who reigned from 1260 to
1294, and who appears to have been the first to provide an
alphabet for the Mongolian language. In order to carry out
this object the Emperor, it is stated, applied to the Pag-pa Lama
of Tibet to furnish him with suitable characters, who complied
with the request by sending the Tibetan alphabet then in use.
It is to be presiimed, therefore, that the inscription in question
was rendered in these characters ; and we are thus enabled to
trace the direct connexion of the frt)ntal monogram with a
Tibetan origin.
Presuming therefore that the significance and origin of the
letter is placed beyond all reasonable doubt, the next question
arises as to what it means. But as to this I fear we are at pre-
sent much in the dark.
General Cimningham has suggested that it might probably
be intended for the initial letter of the name of Ananda, who is
said to have been the nephew and devoted disciple of Buddha
(Gk>tama), and to have been with him at the time of his decease.
And, in support of this surmise. General Cmmingham adds the
interesting remark that the relic-bones of S&riputa and Maga-
l&na, found at Bhilsa, were similarly inscribed with the initials
of their names ; and he goes on to observe that it would be in-
teresting to find that any relic of Ananda had been taken to
China, as he does not remember the notice of any relics except
those of Buddha himself, although statues of several disciples
are recorded. He has no doubt, however, that many relics of
the principal disciples must have found their way to China at the
time of the persecution and final dispersion of the Buddhists.
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78 G. Busk — On an Ancient Calvaria from China,
" The Tibetan letter/^ he adds^ " cannot be older than a.d. GOO-
ZOO, and is probably later/'
With the utmost deference to any hint from so weighty an
authority, it seems to me that a great difficulty lies in the way
of the above supposition, from the circumstance that Buddha,
or the Buddha with whom Ananda was connected, died at the
latest between five and six hundred years before Christ ; and
consequently the inscription must have been placed on the skull
eleven or twelve hundred years after the death of its owner, —
a circumstance that, of itself, woald tend to cast great doubt
upon its authenticity, although, as we know from evidence much
nearer home, doubts of this kind, as regards relics, do not
weigh much in the theological mind.
Mr. E. Thomas, on the other hand, has thrown out the sug-
gestion that the letter might have been intended for the initial
of the word Atmi or Om, which, as Mr. Fergusson informs me,
though sometimes used to express the Deity, is also equivalent
to the exclamation Ave ! or Hail ! But as an objection to this
interpretation it might perhaps be urged that the same Tibetan
alphabet in which this form of A occurs contains also a slight
modification of the same character, answering to au or o, as well
as one signifying am, and it might reasonably have been thought
that one or the other of these two characters would have been
employed to represent om rather than the simple A. But on the
present occasion it would be useless for me to speculate further
on a matter upon which I cannot pretend to give any opinion.
A second interesting subject of inquiry is that of the probable
object or purpose of the specimen when entire. With respect
to this, however, I am unable to offer anything beyond the
vaguest conjectures.
We may regard it either as a simple monument of piety or
veneration (without any special use or purpose), as a dnnking-
vessel, or as a sort of mortuary coffer or reliquary.
Of these, the supposition that it was intended to be used as a
drinking-vessel, or perhaps as a libation-chalice, though at first
sight not very probable when we regard the weight and form of
the setting, becomes less improbable when we consider that the
skull itself does not appear to have been in any way fixed upon
its stand, but simply to have rested on the three golden heads,
from which it could, consequently, be readily lift^ to the lips.
On the other hand, that its destination might have been for some
such purpose is rendered still more probable by what we know
of the very general prevalence, throughout the ancient world
and amongst the most widely separated peoples, of the custom
of using the skulls of their enemies, or of their friends and re-
latives, as drinking-vessels, on high and solemn occasions. The
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G. Busk — On an Ancient Calvariafrom China, 79
custom^ in fact, has survived, it may be said, to our own day in
Australia*.
But as regards ancient times, to pass over the mythical ac-
counts of the banquets of the gods in the Scandinavian Valhalla,
which nevertheless in all probability represented the actual prac-
tice of the warriors, whose valour was stimulated by the prospect
of joining at some Aiture day in the sacred feasts, I would briefly
refer to some of the more definite accounts given by ancient
writers of the use of skulls, artificially prepared as drinking-
vessels t. Amongst the first of these is Herodotus, for a reference
to whose ' History ' I am indebted to Mr. Fergusson. And
since the passages therein contained relate to Asiatic tribes
whose descendants are more immediately involved in the present
inquiry, they seem to me of very considerable interest.
The Father of History mentions two nations or tribes amongst
whom the custom in question obtained.
In his ^History' (book iv. chapter 26) we read, in Mr. G.
Rawlinson's translation, that the '^ Issedonians are said to have
the following customs. When a man^s father dies, all the near
relations bring sheep to the house, which are sacrificed, and their
flesh cut into pieces, whilst at the same time the dead body un-
dergoes the like treatment. The two sorts of flesh are after-
wards mixed together, and the whole is served up at a banquet.
The head of the dead man is treated difierently ; it is stripped
bare, cleansed, and set in gold. It then becomes an ornament
on which they pride themselves, and is brought out year by year
at the great festival which sons keep in honour of their father's
death, just as the Greeks keep their ' genesia.' ''
The second place in which Herodotus refers to the custom is
in the same book (chap. 65), where, in speaking of the Scythians,
he says : — " The skulls of their enemies — not, indeed, of all, but
of those whom they most detest — they treat as follows : — Having
sawn ofi^ the portion below the eyebrows, and cleaned out the
inside, they cover the outside with leather (ox-hide) . When a man
is poor, this is all that he does ; but if he is rich, he also fines
the iwAde with gold; in either case the skull is used as a drink-
ing-cup. They do the same with the skulls of their own kith
and kin if they have been at feud with them, and have vanquished
them in the presence of the king. When strangers whom they
deem of any account come to visit them, these skulls are handed
* [At the following Meeting, Col. Lane Fox exhibited two Australian
skulls which had been used as drinking-vessels in the manner described by
the author. — SuBrEo.]
t The Scandinavian custom appears to have extended into Thrace, as Am-
mianus MarceUinus relates that the Scordisci, who are supposed to have been
of Teutonic origin, " Hostiis captivorum Bellonse litant et Marti, huma-
numque sanguinem in ossibus capitum cavis bibunt avidius."
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
80 G. Busk — On an Ancient Calvaria from China,
rounds and the host tells how that these were his relations^ who
made war upon him^ and how that he got the better of them^
all this being looked upon as a proof of bravery*'*.
Mr. Rawlinson seems to be of opinion that the above-men-
tioned Issedonians inhabited a coimtry west of the Ural chain^ in
N. lat. 54° to 56°; but Major KenneU^ whose opinion I presume
must be regarded as of great weight on such a pointy places them
in the neighbourhood of Bootan^ which brings them not far
from the Tibetan frontierf. And he states that he " has seen,
brought from Bootan, skulls that were taken out of temples or
places of worship ; but it is not known whether the motive to
their preservation was friendship or enmity. It might very pro-
bably be the former. They were formed into dnnking-bowls
in the manner descrilied by Herodotus^ by cutting them off below
the eyebrows; and they were neatly varnished all over J* It is
curious to remark that the lining with gold and the polishing
of the exterior, which is perhaps what Major Rennell terms
varnishing, are both exhibited in the present skull.
It is, moreover, worthy of note that, in Major Rennell's
opinion, the modern descendants of the Issedones are represented
by a Mongol tribe, the Oigurs or Elutfis, a people occupying a
tract in the centre of Asia, who were conquered in the last cen-
tury by the Chinese. And he says that it seems to be under-
stood in Asia that these Oigurs furnished the Mongols with their
alphabet; while M. Souciet, who is quoted by Major Rennell,
says that no Tatar nation besides them had the use of letters
in the time of Jinghis Khan (13th century), and also remarks
that the characters used by the Eluths were the same with those
in use in Tibet. This latter statement, though not admitted
by other writers, appears to be in accord with what is above re-
lated concerning the Mongol inscription found in China.
As an instance of the same mode of using the human skull,
in a widely remote region, may be cited the accoimt given by
Livy]: of the defeat, by means of a very ingenious stratagem,
of a large Roman force imder L. Postumius by the Boii, a tribe
of Gauls, where we find that '^ spolia corporis caputque ducis
praecisum .... templo quod sanctissimum est apud eos intul^re :
purgato inde capite, ut mos iis est, calvam § auro cselavSre. Idque
* The OeltiB, according to Strabo (iv. 65), were also in the habit of em-
balming with resinous substances the heads of distinguished enemies, which
they euiibited, as marks of prowess^ to visitors. These heads were kept in
wooden coffers.
t G^ffraphical System of Herodotus, p. 144.
I Book xziii.
$ I do not know when the word " cranium " was first employed as a Latin
term for a skull. Though so universally admitted it is not to be found, so far
as I can discover, in any Latin author or dictionary. The earliest citation of its
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6. Busk — On an Ancient Calvaria from China. 81
sacrum vas iis erat quo solennibus libarent ; poculumque idem
sacerdoti esse ac templi antistitibus/' Here we are left to con-
jecture as to the form or mode in which the embossing with gold
was carried out ; but the instance shows that the same vessel
might be used both as a sacrificial chalice^ and as a drinking-
bowl for the priests and their assistants. But there is still
another point which may be adverted to. It would seem from
the worn condition of the exterior surface^ as shown in the
nearly complete obliteration of the embossed figures on the
occiput and right parietal region^ that the skull had been sub-
jected to frequent handlings and perhaps for a long period an-
terior to its being so carefully encompassed with gold and^ as it
was supposed^ securely lodged amongst the treasures of the Im-
perial Palace. With reference to this subject it is interesting
to leam^ as I have from Dr. Hooker, that the Tibetans at the
present day use human skulls divided as the present one is^ and
having membrane or skin stretched across them, as a sort of
drum or timbrel in certain religious ceremonies ; and it seems by
no means improbable that the present calva was originally ap-
plied to that purpose.
From the above it will be seen that it would at present be
premature to regard the skull as having any direct connexion
with Buddhism or any other form of religious faith. It might
quite as probably^ perhaps, be related to some of the more
ancient legendary customs above alluded to.
There is no reason whatever, but quite the contrary, for be-
lieving that it has any thing whatever to do with Confricius'^.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE XI.
Fig. 1. Lateral aspect of a calvaria from China, which has been supposed to
be that of Confucius.
2. Vertical aspect of the same.
3. Frontal aspect of the same.
4. Occipital aspect of the 9ame.
6. Figure in faint relief on the frontal bone.
6. Trefoil figure on the left side of the skuU.
7. Traces of figure on the back of the skull.
use, in ' Ducange*8 Olossarium/ is in a barber-surgeon's report of a case in 1880 ;
and here it is spelt " craneum," evidently a latinization of the French cratie.
The proper Latin term for the naked skull is calvaria (in one instance
ealvarittm). In the above passage from Livy it seems that the classical term
for the upper portion of tne fmvaria is calva^ a term which it may, on
occasion, perhaps be useful to retain.
* Since this paper was read, Mr. Mummerv has informed me that Mr.
Lockhart has suggested to him that the skull may Ix? that of a revolted
Mongol prince, not improbably Ichangir.
VOL. II. ^i^^^^T^
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82 G. Busk — On an Ancient Calvaria from China.
Discussion.
Mr. Feboussoit said that he remembered this skull and stand in
the Great Exhibition of 1862, when it belonged to Mr. Tait. The
speaker had no hesitation in saying that it was the most exquisitely
beautiful specimen in oriental goldsmith's work which he had ever
seen. The price then put upon it was one thousand guineas.
Mr.Fergusson was afraid that the Buddhist theory must be entirely
abandoned. We are too familiar, both from description and expe-
rience, with the mode in which Buddhist relics were preserved, to be
mistaken on this point. They were preserved either in miniature
dagobies or caskets like bon-bon boxes, or in metal cases ; had this
skull been a relic, it would have been turned upwards, fastened to its
stand, provided certainly with a covering of some sort, and placed so
as to be admired and worshipped. On the contrary, il; was lined with
gold, fitted with a jewelled lid, and laid loosely on its tripod so as to
DO easily removed and handled ; and its worn and poHshed appear-
ance shows how frequently this was done.
It seemed to him, on the other hand, very clear, that the passages
which Mr. Busk had just quoted from Herodotus and Livy contained
the true explanation of its history. It must have been the skull of
some revered ancestor or dreaded foe of the present Tatar dynasty of
China, and was consequently honoured, and used (as we find it was)
in the summer palace at Peking.
Mr. MuMHEBT, the owner, of the calvaria, said that it had been
given to him by a medical friend. Dr. Millar, who saw it lying, un-
cared for, at the house of a Jewish gold-dealer in Houndsditch.
The speaker had received a letter from Dr. Lockhart, founder of
the Hospital at Peking, who expressed his decided opinion that the
skull was never supposed by the educated Chinese to have been
that of Confucius, although it has usually been assigned to that
philosopher by Europeans. He believes that the skull belonged to
some Tatar prince who was a tributary to the empire, and who had
rebelled — his overthrow and death having been commemorated by this
costly work of art and an ancient Mongolian initial engraved on the
frontal bone. He adds that the trefoil is probably the emblem of
the Buddhist trinity.
Dr. A. Campbell said, with reference to Professor Busk's remarks
on the objects for preserving this skull, that Buddhists made some
strange uses of human bones in religious observances. The thigh-
bone was used as a trumpet for calling to prayers ; and Dr. Campj^ll
had a lama*s rosary which was composed of circular pieces cut out
of a human skull.
Dr. Donovan observed that this could not be the skull of a man of
note in any civilized country, or even of a man at all. It was far too
small for an ordinary male skull. The sutures showed that it could
hardly be the skidl of an educated person ; for they were very simple
and not at all serrated.
Dr. Oppebt stated that skulls were used both as drinking-vessels
and for religious purposes in much later tipies than had been men*
tioned.
Digitized by
Google
Ho WORTH — On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades, ^c. 83
In A.B. 574, Alboin, the King of the Longobards, was killed at the
instigation of his wife, Eosamunde, the daughter of Kunimund, the
last king of the G^pidae, who had been beaten and slain in battle
against Alboin. Out of the skull of Kunimund a drinking-vessel had
been made, and used as such at the great festivals of the Court. At
one of these feasts the intoxicated king compelled his wife to drink
out of the skull of her father, which atrocity enraged her so much
that she assassinated him*.
But as the skull in question is brought into connexion with East-
Asiatic customs, an interesting instance may be cited from oriental
writers. When Ong-khan, the chief of the Keraites, had been slain,
in Mie year 1203, Tayanuk-khan, the chief of the Naymans, ordered
the head of his late friend to be enchased in gold and silver. When,
on one occasion, the head moved, as Tayanuk-khan addressed it io a
jesting manner, this was regarded by the Tatars as a bad omen ; and
soon afterwards the Nayman chief was slain. The Persiaa chronicler
Mirkhond says that the Nayman chief was a Butperest, or heathen,
which word But is, without doubt, derived from Buddha f*
Major P. MiLLiNGEK, P.E.Q-.S., then read a paper " On the Koords
and Armenians."
IX. On the Westerly Driptino of Pomades, from the Fifth to
the Nineteenth Century. By H. H. Howorth, Esq. — Part
III. The Comans and Petchenegs.
(Part XL was published in Vol. I. pp. 37a-587.)
I SHALL now return to the consideration of an area much more
connected with European ethnology. Here we shall meet with
greater difficulties and complications. South of the Jaxartes
we can with some approximation discriminate Turkish invaders
from Persian settlers. They belong to two separate divisions of
the human race in the classiiication of modem science. Reli-
gion, manners and customs, physique and language, all present
features assisting the division. North of the Jaxartes, in the
great deserts of the Khirgises, and in the steppes of Little
Tatary and of Siberia, we meet with much more complicating
circumstances. There the difference is one of degree rather than
of kind, and we only multiply difficulties in multiplying dif*
• [These "Longobards" may very well have been the descendants of the
JBcii above noticed, to whom the foundation of Bologna, Parma, Reggio, Mo-
dena, &c. ia assigned. — G. B.]
t [M the Meeting of the Society on the 22nd February, 1870, Mr. Busk
exhibited a second calvCf lined with copper, which had been kindly forwarded
to him by Mr. W. Lockhart ; and at the same time read some additional
remarks on the subject, the substance of which was derived from communi-
cations ^m Mr. Lockhart, Mr. Wylie, and Mr. R. Swinhoe. These will
appear in the next Number of the Journal.]
o 2
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84 HowoRTH — On the Westerly Drafting of Nomades,
ferences. Turan, the complement of Iran, is used as the collec-
tive name of a congery of clans and families rather than of races
or states^ all nearly related^ and having common traditions.
They all speak languages of the agglutinative type, and as we
recede from our own times they approximate more closely to one
another, and it becomes impossible to classify them rigidly.
Greatly as I respect the name of Latham (and I have some
occasion to respect it), I cannot believe in the artificial weight
he attaches to names and distinctions, nor in the sharply
defined races which his arguments require. I believe Ugrian,
Turk, and Mongol to be of much more geographical than etlftiic
value. If by Ugrian be meant those tribes living under hard
conditions along the borders of the Frozen Sea, and having their
typical idiosyncrasies in Lapland, and by Turk those prouder
races which, having been frontagers of a series of civilizations in
the plains of Great Tatary and Turkestan, have received from
them grafts of a more energetic blood, and have had their lan-
guage, manners, and appearance altered, and of whom the tvpe
is the Turkish race of the Ouigours, I am content with the cuw-
sification ; but between these extreme types almost every pos-
sible intermediate form exists, having more or less common fea-
tures, as, for instance, the Bashkirs, who, in their indigenous
name and their physical forms, are very Ugrian, while their lan-
guage is very Turk, &c. Bearing this in mind, every one can
appreciate the almost superhuman difficulty of reconciling the
thousand contradictory statements of the Byzantine, and the
often empirical nomenclature of the Arabian geographers, and
may also find ample reason for the confusion which still reigns
in this somewhat repulsive and uninviting field of ethnological
inquiry. Few have traversed it with even moderate success, nor
do I claim to be better than my neighbours. I have had the
assistance of their ingenuity, and I have consulted every autho-
rity within my reach, among whom let me especially name the
often-forgotten Strahlenberg, the plodding Zeuss, whose great
work on ethnology this Society ought to translate, and the ubi-
quitous Klaproth ; with these materials I have endeavoured to
give a connected theory, on which I humbly invite criticism.
First I must say a few words about the Mongols. As is well
known, they are divided by geographers into two great branches,
the Mongols proper in the east and the Kalmucks in the west
of Mongolistan. I have already given an account of the sepa-
ration, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, of the
European Kalmucks from their mother race in the little Altai,
when they drove many of the Nogay hordes fix)m between the
Tobol and the Jaik before them. The Kalmucks of the Altaic
known as Olot, derive their origin from Tangout, the country
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 85
lying between the Kokonoor or Blue Lake and Tiljet ; nor do
I see any reason to quarrel with this tradition. The date of
their settlement about Lake Balkash and in Soongaria I cannot
believe to have been much before the time of Zenghiz, and I
believe them to have drifted hither gradually during tlie supre-
macy of the Great Mogul Khanate of Karakorum ; for in the
earlier wars of Zenghiz their present area was occupied by the
Naymans^ whose name still survives in one of the clans of the
Usbegs and among the Khirgises, and who may therefore be
considered to have been Turks.
If the Olot are to be traced to the Keraites, as D'Ohnson
asserts, we have another confirmation of this position. Before
the time of Zenghiz, then, I hold that the Mongols were limited
on the west by the present boundaries of what are known as the
Mongols proper, the hordes of the forty-nine banners of the
Chinese writers — ^that is, roughly, by the eastern frontiers of
the great provinces of Chinese Turkestan, known as Thian Shan
Nanloo or Little Bukharia, and Thian Shan Peloo or Soongaria —
that they occupied all the country from the Chinese Wall in the
south to the province of Irkutsk in the north, roaming over the
great desert of Gobi, and having their chief focus in the regions
around Lake Baikal. Hence they crept westward. Bar He-
bneus, who wrote in the middle of the thirteenth century, and
who lived among them, places their western limit at the country
of the Igurri Turcse, and says the same Mongols conquered the
Igurri and took tribute from them : these Igurri are the Oui-
gours of Bishbalig &c. Later on they gradually infiltered the
Khirgis deserts with their blood, and imparted the same in a
smaller measure to the Nogay Tatars.
If I were asked for an opinion as to the ethnic aflBnities of the
Mongols, I should say that they are merely the result of a mix-
ture of Tongus with Turks, their neighbours on either hand —
that on the west they fade almost insensibly by such transition
tribes as the Kalmucks and the Buriats into Turkish forms,
while on the other hand they do the same even more insensibly
into Tongus through those tribes of the Baikal to whom the
name Tatar was originally applied, the greatest aflSnity, no
doubt, being with the latter, whose religious and social condi-
tions they most affect.
The great provinces of Chinese Turkestan, from which we
have succeeded in eliminating the Kalmucks, bounded on the
north by the little Altai, on the south by Tibet, on the east by
the desert of Gobi, and on the west by Great Bukharia, were
known to the Arabs as Kara Kathay, or Black Kathay, either
frdm their inferior position to Great Kathay, or China, or from
their sterile aspect.
Digitized by vJTOOQ IC
86 HowoETH — On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades,
The name Kathay is derived from the Kitans or Khitans^ who
were known to the Chinese writers as Leao. The Kitans had
been masters of Northern China from the year 907. In the
year 1125 the Nin Tche, a Mantchu race, broke the power of
the Kitans, and a body of them invaded Kaschgar and settled
there. These were known to the Chinese as western Leao, and
were the Kitans who gave their name to Kara Kathay. Their
leaders only were Kitans, the soldiery was composed, like the
army of Zenghiz, of Turks. They repeatedly invaded Trans-
oxiana, and in 1171 defeated the Charizmians. Their most
renowned exploit, however, if it be possible to credit the story,
is their invasion of Georgia. A race still remains there (called
the Chaitaki, their land Khaita or Cara Khaita) who claim descent
from, these Kitans. I do not see how the story is to be under-
mined, and should be thankful for some more information on the
subject of this obscure tribe. As far as we know, they are Turks,
and allied in race to the Basians.
Before the arrival of the Kitans, Chinese Turkestan was the
seat of a renowned power known to the Chinese as that of the
Hoe-tche, originally a clan of the horde Kao-tche, settled south
of the Selinga. In 742 their Khan was acknowledged as Grand
Khan by the Chinese emperor. In 745 his empire reached the
Altai and the Irtysch in the west and the country of the Tun-
guses in the east. In 758, the same year in which the Arabs
burnt Canton, there was a quarrel at the Chinese court about
precedence between the embassy of this Grand Khan and that
of Aboudjiasar al Mansor, second Khalif of the Abassides (De
Guignes) . At the end of the eighth century the empire of the
Hoeitche was one of the most important in Asia. Among others^
the Khirghises were subject to it.
These Hoeitche, or Goeitche, as they are also called, were, as
we have seen, in contact with the Arab conquests of the Sama-
nides; and many of them, on the frontiers of l^ansoxiana, adopted
Mahommedanism. They are, in fact, the Turkish race known to
the Nubian geographer as Odhkos, and to the various Arabians
as the Gusses, of whom we have already written at length, and
from whom were derived the Turkish invaders of southern Asia,
the Ghaznevides, the Seljuks, &c. Their history is mixed up
with that of the Ouigoui*s or Kaotchary Turks, called by De
Guignes the Cba-to, Tagazgaz by Majoudi, and Bagargar by
other Arabs. The Turkish chroniclers divide their own race
into two sections, the northern and the southern, each with an
eponymous hero as its ancestor : these sections are the Oghuz
and the Ouigour. I have more faith in such traditions among
the Turks than among any other race. In this case it is con-
firmed by many facts ; the language of the Uzbeks and that of
* Digitized by CjOOQIC
fnm the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 87
the Ouigonrs is almost identical^ and is the purest Turkish idiom
known, while their habits and traditions are the same.
I am awaiting impatiently the results of M. Vambery's exami-
nation of the remains of the Ouigour literature. At present,
while we associate with the name Ouigour the typical home-
grown civilization of Asia, which Zenghiz made its cultivators
teach his people — ^while we are joined closer in sympathy with
the same cultivators by the extraordinary labours among them
of the early Nestorian missionaries, and by the fact of their land,
and especially its town Konam-tcheou, having been the entrepdt
where the Arab traders exchanged the products of Spain and
Arabia for those of Siberia and China — while we assign to the
Ouigours these glories, we must on this occasion follow them
to the west in company with and in subordination to their
more enterprising brothers the Hoeitche. Let us resume our
story.
The Hoeitche or Ousses, although continually drifting west-
wards, still kept up connexions with China, and about 890 the
Chinese received tribute from them. They now become cele-
brated in the civil strifes of the Samanides. Under Bograh
Khan, in 992, they took Bokhara ; he also possessed Kaschgar,
Balasgoum, Khotcn, Earas, and the country as far as China.
He advanced as far as Georgia, and his successor Illih II Khan
was master of both Samarcand and Bokhara. In 999 the
Hoeitche overturned the dynasty of the Samanides. They still
paid tribute to China. We now hear of their struggles with the
Khitans, and of their power crumbling away before those eastern
invaders. I have already given some account of their swarm-
ing into Persia; but this was only the history of one portion.
Another took the way of the Kirghis desert towards the Volga.
A third stayed at home, and became, as I believe, the ancestors
of the Naymans, whom I have referred to, and of the numerous
Turkish races still found in Western Chinese Turkestan. The
Jeteh or Geteh, of the annals of Timour and of other writers,
who are placed south of the river Khujend, and in the deserts of
the Khirgises, from them caDed Desht Jeteh, I believe with
some authorities to have been merely such Turks as still re-
mained pagans and did not submit to Islamism. Timour calls
them his countrymen. Whether this opprobrious designation of
heretics be the origin of the term Jut and Get in the Sikh annals
I know not.
I have said that the Khitan invasion drove some of the
Hoeitche to the west : these would not be likely to stay in the
sandy wilderness of the Khirgises ; and we accordingly find it
recorded by the Arab Ma90udi that, about the beginning of the
tenth century, hordes of the Gusses, a Turkish folk, wintered
Digitized by L:*OOQ IC
88 Ho WORTH — Oa,the Westerly Drifting o/Nomades,
on the east of the Volga (called by him the Nites)^ and when it
froze over invaded on horseback the land of the Chazars.
The Volga^ the eastern limit of Europe^ was near enough to
the Greeks and Russians to lead us to expect to find such an
invasion (especially as it was not likely to be a mere isolated
raid) mentioned in their annals ; and on turning to them we find
ourselves among a long series of such notices. Wherever we
find the term Ousses or Gozz in the accoimts of the Arabs, we
have the names Uzes or Comani used by the Byzantines, the
former term used with great laxity, aud sometimes made to
include the Petchenegs. Anna Comnena, in 1070, first uses the
name Comani. De Guignes makes Comani to be a mere dimi-
nutive of Turcoman!, — ^a very wild etymology. It is clearly
derived from the river Eouma or Kuma, the country about
which was known to the Persians as Kumestan, and which the
Arabian Edrissi, who wrote about the end of the eleventh cen-
tury, distinctly calls Al Ckomania, and adds, which gives name
to the Ckomanians (Klaproth, Travels in the Caucasus, 155).
The name Comanians is therefore of small value in tracing
the history of the Gusses ; it is merely the appellative they
derived from their situation. Nikon, the Russian chronicler, in
speaking of them, says, the " Cumani, more properly Polowtzy.'*
Another writer, quoted by Schlozer, says, " the Cumani, that is
the Polowtzi.'^ Nestor, in describing one of their invasions of
the Greek empire, says Polowtzi where the Greek writers say
(/umani. We thus identify the Cumani of the Greeks with the
Polowtzki so celebrated in the Russian annals of the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. Polowtzki merely means steppe-men.
Rubruquis, who wrote about 1253, says, " Here [i. e. in the pre-
sent Nogay steppe] the Comani live and feed their flocks ; they
call themselves Capchat; to the Germans they are known as
Walani, and their country as Walania." Here, then, we have
the indigenous name of the Comans, the name adopted by the
Mogul khanate of Baton Khan, to which we have previously
referred — a name still borne by Uzbek and Nogay tribes, and
by a tribe of the middle horde of the Khirgises, in whose terri-
tory is a town Kaptchak and a lake Kaptchi, a distinctly Turk
name, being adopted, there can be little doubt, from some noted
leader ; for we find Kaptchak mentioned on three or four occa-
sions in Uzbeg history as the proper name of a chieftain. The
plain between the Volga and Ural was known, from such a one,
as Desht Kaptchak (the desert of Kaptchak), just as it was sub-
sequently known as Desht Bereke, from Bereke the Nogay
leader. Here we have another proof, if such were needed, of
our being right in tracing the Comans to the same parentage as
the Uzbegs. The German appellative by which the Comans
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 89
were known is not so easy to explain. The province of Vol-
hynia took its name firom them^ according to Latham. But
this can hardly be so^ as the name occurs much earlier than
their inyasion. Zeuss gives the form Falawa^ and says it is the
literal rendering of Polouci (t. e. Steppe-men). He also adds the
forms Falon^ Valni, Valewe, Valwen, and Walmoen. There can
be little doubt that Zeuss is right.
The Comans are described by various authors as a savage race,
living on flesh and drinking mare^s milk and blood — ^the typical
food of the Turkish hordes. ,
To this accumulated evidence we may add the best of all tests^
namely, that of language. Rubruquis tells us that the language
of the Jugurri (t. e. the Ouigours) is the original and root of the
Turkish and Comanian languages. The Genoese called the lan-
guage of the Turks of the Black Sea (i. e, of the Comans)
Ugaresca [i.e, Ouigour). When many of the Comans were
driven out of their quarters by the Mongols, they fled, as we
shall see, into Hungary. Here their descendants still remain :
although they have forgotten their tongue and adopted Hun-
garian, this is only very recently ; several copies of the Lord^s
Prayer in their language have been preserved. Lastly, Elaproth
has published a very elaborate analysis of a Persian and Coma-
nian vocabulary he discovered in the library of St. Mark at
Venice. These remains are all of them purelv Turkish.
The Byzantines place the flrst arrival of tne Comani or Kip-
tchaks about the years 894r-899, when they drove the Petchenegs
&om between the Ural or Jaik and the Volga. The Russians
first speak of the Polowzi in 996, during the reign of Wladimir,
when their prince, Wolodar, invaded Russia. They were then
defeated and their king killed. From this date to the year 1229,
when they occur for the last time in the Russian chronicles, the
history of Russia is little more than the account of their fearful
devastEitions, invited and assisted by the miserable squabbles of
the various Russian princes. In their earlier struggles with the
Petchenegs we find the Kiptchaks in alliance with the ELhazars ;
and with them they first drove the Petchenegs across the Don.
A portion of the latter, however, survived in the deserts between
the Ural and the Volga ; the remainder were gradually pressed
westward into Hungary and on to the weak defences of the Greek
empire ; and the Comans gradually occupied the country north of
the Euxine and the Caucasus, where they are placed by Rubru-
quis and De Piano Carpino. Describing the Nogay steppe north
of the Crimea, the former writer says, " This whole level was,
previously to the irruption of the Tartars, inhabited by the Co-
manians. . . .- . On the invasion of the Tartars a great multitude
of Comanians fled to the sea-shore .... The whole country
Digitized by VjOOQIC
90 HowoRTH — On ike Westerly Drifting ofNomades,
from the Danube to the Tanais is more than two months' journey
across^ even for such swift riders as the Tartars, and is entirely in-
habited by Comanians, who extend even beyond the Tanais to the
Edil (Volga), a tract of ten long days' journey between the two
rivers/' In an old map of the year 1318, in the Imperial Library
at Vienna, Comania or Chumania is the tract north of the Sea
of Azof. In this tract Rubruquis mentions passing the tombs of
the Comani — stately erections, pyramids and pillars, upon each
of which was placed a rude figure holding a drinking-cup.
Klaproth, who describes them as they still remain, doubts their
having been made by the Comani. Similar erections in the
same area are undoubtedly described by the Romans as having
been put up by the Huns. The arrival of the Mongols broke up
the Comanian power. When the former had forced their way
through the Caucasus, they were opposed by an allied army of
Comans and Alans. Commencing the struggle, as they inva-
riably did, with intrigues, they detached the Comans from their
alliance by claiming them as brothers and of the same kin, which
they denied to the Alans. This is another proof of the ethnic
affinities of the Comans ; for we know that the army of Baton
Khan was almost entirely composed of Turks. Having defeated
the Alans separately, the Mongols, with consistent treachery,
turned their arms upon the Comans. On another occasion,
when Comans and Russians were allied, they attempted, but
unsuccessfully, the same policy in more flattering terms, saying
the Comans were their ancient slaves while the Russians were a
noble, independent people. The various alliances of Comans,
Russians, and Alans, however, were of little avail. The Mongol
tide swept on, and the Comanians, as a separate nation (their
capital was Soldaya), were heard of no more in the Nogay steppe.
Many of them were sold by the Mongols to the family of Saladin,
and became the nucleus of the Mamelukes, one of whom, called
Bibars or Biberdi (a Turk name) became sultan of Egypt and
concluded a treaty with the Greek emperor in 1261. Many of
the Comans, however, followed in the steps of previous unfor-
timate nomades and made their way towards the Hungarian
plains, with whose inhabitants they had had many conflicts, in
two of which, in 1070 and 1089, they had been severely defeated
by the Hungarians Salomo andLadislav (see Zeuss,^Die Deutschen
und die Nachbarstamme'). In Hungary numbers of them settled.
On the middle Theiss still remains a country called Kunsag,
and people known as great and little Kumans — ^the former on
the right, the latter on the left bank of the river. In 1410 they
were converted to Christianity, and in the same century fol-
lowed the trades of masons and archers (in Hungarian Jazok).
They still exist to the number of 112,000 free persons, but have
Digitized by VjOOQIC
from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 91
entirely forgotten their language. According to Klaproth, the
last who understood it was a man named Varro, who died in 1 770.
Remains of it, as I have said, have been preserved and proved to
be clearly Turkish.
The establishment of the Mongol empire of the Kaptchak on
the ruins of the Comanian power did not eradicate that race
altogether; although the name Coman disappears^ the name
Kaptchak was adopted by the conquerors, and a vast number of
the original Kaptchaks or Comans remained behind in the
steppes, under the rule of the Mongols^ and became the nucleus
of the various Nogay hordes, the most important of whose tribes
is known as Kaptchak. The name Nogay is applied to most of
the wandering tribes from Bessarabia to the Kuma. Most of
these have, as I believe, their genealogies rooted among the
Comani, mixed, unquestionably, with a tinge of Mongol blood,
and in a greater degree with the blood of earlier occupiers of
the same steppes. Their main element is the same as that of
the earlier Turcoman invaders of Persia, namely, that of the
Gusses, the western wave of the same flood of which the Tur-
comans formed the southern wave — a flood caused by the dis-
persion of the empire of the Hoeitche in Turkestan.
Having cleared up the ethnology of the Comans, we are in a
position to examine that of the Petchenegs, whom the former
drove out.
Before the Coman invasion the country west of the Volga
was occupied by the Khazars and the Petchenegs, the former a
great and most interesting race, who long gave their names to a
very wide territory — the land of Khazaria, as it is called by
Ma90udi. Tlie Petchenegs were a body of but recent origin, who
were constantly flghting with the Khazars. In the earlier Co-
man invasions we generally find the Comans in alliance with the
Khazars against the Petchenegs. Who, then, were the Petche-
negs ? Zeuss gives their various synonyms thus : — they were
known as Patzinakitai to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Pece-
natici, Pizenaci, Pincenates, Pecinei, Petinei, and Postinagi, to
the western writers, Peczenjezi to the western Slaves, Bisscui to
the Hungarians. Behnakyeis their name in Ibn el Wardi, and
Drewenses («. e. woodmen, from drew or derew, a wood) in the
Russian chronicles.
Strahlenberg has the ingenious suggestion that Petscheneg is
derived from Petsch or Pietsch, which he says is the literal
translation of ^ Hund,' a dog, and connects them with the Huns.
Latham suggests that the name may be the same as Peucini, so
called from the island Peuke in the Danube, — not that the
Petchenegs were in any way connected in blood with the Peu-
cini of the Romans, but that the name was adopted by the
invaders as Briton has been adopted by an Anglo-Saxon race*jle
92 HowoBTH — On the Westerly Drifting ofNomades,
I cannot accept either of these etymologies. Klaproth relates
that when Jermak^ the Cossack^ attacked the Siberian Tatars
on the Tawda^ and they had assembled in the neighbourhood of
Patschenka, a prince named Petscheneg was among the slain.
This shows the name was not confined to the Petchenegs of the
Danube^ and shows further the probability that, like Kaptchak
and Uzbeg, it was a family name of note, and adopted for that
reason by the whole race, and so adopted at no distant date
either ; for Constantine Porphyrogenitus tells us they were
formerly called Kangar or Kankar, which among them means
valour. The mention oi Patschenka seems to introduce us to
the typical area of the race. Snorro Sturleson mentions the
Petchenegs as Pezina VoUhr. Sviatoslav, the Russian, we are
tbld, was beheaded in Petschenka curia. Where, then, was
Patschenka ?
The Arabian geographer Scherif Edrissi speaks of the countiy
of Bedschenay, and places it in the seventh part of the seventh
climate, in contiguity with Bassdshirt (Baskiria). He says it was
not extensive, he did not know whether they had any larger
town than Banamuni, which contained many inhabitants of the
race of the Turks, and that they carried on war with the Rus-
sians and the Greeks. With these scanty materials it would be
impossible to dogmatize. The name by which they were known
to the Hungarians is said to be the origin of the syllables
Besse in Bessarabia. It is at the same time a curious coinci-
dence that one of the Thracian tribes was also called Bessi or
Bissi.
In the statement of the Emperor Constantine, already quoted^
we come upon more fruitful etymologies. The Kangar can be no
other than the Eangitcs of Carpino, the Curges and Changle of
other travellers, the Cancalis so celebrated in the Ural steppe at
the time of Tchinghiz — ^names derived by Klaproth from their
invention and use of wheeled carriages, "kanek'^ meaning wheels.
Among the names of Petcheneg tribes preserved by Constantine
is the Talmat, which Strahlenberg compares with the Talma^
sata found east of the Volga in his day — ^another proof of the
identification. The ethnic affinities of the Petchenegs are clear
enough. Nikon the chronicler associates them with the Tork-
mcni, Tortozy, and Cumani. Ibn el Wardi calls them a Turkish
race. Anna Comnena says they spoke the same language as the
Comans. The Byzantines constantly confound the Comans and
Petchenegs under the conmion name of Uzi. All these facts
confirm the position of most inquirers, that the Petchenegs were
a horde of Turks belonging to a previous wave of invasion to
the Uzi proper, less purely Turk, I believe, and more mixed
with foreign elements. Their former seats were situated at the
foot of the Ural mountains ; and I believe them t0~have been
■igitized by V3
from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century . 93
very nearly related to the Baschkirs — ^a race whose language is
Turk but whose blood is mixed. The name Baschkir suggests
comparisons with Bessi and Bisseni of the Hungarians ; and I
know of no other source whence the Turkish language of the
Baschkirs can have been derived, if it were not from the Pet-
chenegs or Cancalis. The Kangli or Cancalis had been an
ancient foe of the Hoeitche on the other side of the Volga.
When the power of the latter became settled, the Caucalis emi-
grated or were forced towards the west; I believe they then
drove out the inhabitants of Pascatir or Baschkir land, and
caused them to migrate to Hungary ; they also broke the power
of the Khazars, many of whom they also drove into Hungary.
The Petchenegs occupied the vacant lands, and gradually
pressed westward into the woods of the Ukraine, whence they
grievously afflicted the borders of the Greek empire and the
Russians of Kief. With the Cumans they are described as a
savage race, living on the flesh, milk, and blood of their herds ;
we are also told they were an inferior race to the Comans, both
in numbers and in appearance, and that they had a distinctive
dress. Their chief town was called Korosten or Kourosteszov
(i. e. wall of bark), also known as Nowopolci, on the river Tetera,
famous for the death of Igor and the mound under which he
was buried. Another of their towns was Ovroutsche, where
Oleg was murdered (see Bohusz, Becherches historiques sur
i'Origine des Sarmates, &c., 8. xxxi. 532). We are told the
Petchenegs lived in tents, that each of their eight tribes had a
separate chief, and that these tribes were themselves split up
into forty lesser ones. The names of these eight tribes, as given
by the Emperor Constantino, are Ertem, Tzur, Gyla, Culpee,
Charobo^, Talmat, Chapon, and Tzopon; they divided their
conquests into eight provinces corresponding to them — four east
of the Dnieper, between the Russians and the Khazars, and four
west of the Dnieper, in Moldavia, Transylvania on the Bug,
and the neighbourhood of Kief. The same writer places their
first arrival at fifty years before his time, t. e. about a.d. 862.
Rhegnion, who lived about 908, makes the date 889 (De
Guignes. Nestor mentions them first in Russia in 915 ; they
occur in his pages very frequently. They killed Igor in 945,
and in 968 hud siege to Kief. In alliance with the Russians
they made constant raids on the Greek empire. From the
Petchenegs the Russians bought their oxen, sheep, and horses,
their country not producing these animals. In their hands, too,
was the traffic with the Baltic coast for amber, and with
Novgorod for all the products of the east.
From these seats they were driven by the Comans, some into
Bessarabia, some into Hungary, where the Hungarian kings
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
94 HowoRTH — On the Westerly Drifting o/Nomades, ^c.
made them useful in settling them on the marchlands or frou*
tiers of the Theutonici; others, again, coalescing with the
Comans, became the ancestors of the Nogays. As I have
already related, one of the western hordes of the Nogays is still
called Budzuchy while one of their eastern ones retains the name
of Mangat, applied to one of the divisions of the Cancalis. The
Petchenegs who were left on the other side of the Volga in the
great invasion, I consider were the ancestors of those Turcomans
roaming between the Caspian and the Aral, known as Kara-
kalpacs or Black-caps. Lastly, I trace to the Petchenegs also
the various Turkish tribes still found in the Caucasus, called by
the Georgians Bassiani. Klaproth reports the tradition of their
elders that they were formerly settled on the steppes of the
Kuma as far as the Don, and that their capital city was named
Ckirck Madshar, represented by the ruins of Madshar. He
has proved that its remains are entirely of a Turkish type. ''At
the commencement of the second century of the Hegira (or, ac-
cording to other accouats, so late as the fourteenth century) their
several princes, living in constant enmity with their neighbours^
were at length expelled by them, on which they retired to the
Great Kabardaah, whence they were in the sequel driven by the
Tscherkessians, and being divided into detached bodies were
necessitated to fix their habitations on the highest mountains, at
« the sources of the Kuban Baksan and Tschegem ; one portion
still remained on the Malka, and did not remove till a later
period to the source of the Tscherek, whence it yet retains the
name of Malkar or Balkar/' The other Turks of the Caucasus,
not included under the name of Bassiani, and known as Cka-
ratschai, have a similar tradition, and that they were drivea
&om Madshar and into the mountains by the Circassians. The
language of all these Turks is very like Nogay ; and I can see
no reason for doubting for a moment their traditional origin,
and that they form another detached fragment of the Cancalis.
In conclusion, I would survey the ethnological effects of the
twin invasions of these sister races, the Petchenegs and the
Comans. In the first place, I believe them to have been the
first Turks whom we can show to have invaded Europe. I do not
deny that Turkish chieftains may have led the armies of the
earlier invaders; but, contrary to the opinion of Dr. Latham
and of every other authority I know, I deny to any of the pre-
vious races the characteristics of Turks. The earlier occupants
of the Nogay steppe, the Khazars and the Alans, were, I con-
sider, entirely different races; the materials for their ethno-
logical distinction have been assiduously collected by Fraehn,
Vivien, St. Martin, and D^Ohsson, although they have none of
them, so far as I know, solved the problem.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Review. 95
If these races were the first Turks that invaded Europe^ it
follows that M. Vambery is only very partially right in trying
to trace the Hungarians to the Ouigours and other Turkish
tribes. The only Turks in Hungary are the remnants of the
Cancalis or Petchenegs, the Comans, and the Osmanli ; and they
have only affected the population in a very superficial manner,
hardly so much, perhaps, as the Normans affected the English.
The examination of this superficial coating cannot be more pro-
fitably done than by a careful criticism of the Turcoman hordes
of the Persian border and the remains of Ouigour literature ;
and it is a question of very great interest ; but we shall be very
wild in our ethnology if we attempt to connect the main bulk
of the Hungarian nation and its idiosyncracies with such an
origin and cradle-land. Notwithstanding the rudeness and tur-
bulence of Turkish nomades, we must never forget that, from
their arrival on the northern and eastern borders of the Caspian
till their overthrow by the Mongols, they were the main traf-
fickers between Europe and the Persian and Indian frontier;
from the Crimea to the city of Kharazm or Khiva caravans
were constantly passing. I believe that they succeeded to a
culture much more advanced than their own ; but that of the
Turkish hordes has been unnecessarily decried. The Tatars of
the Crimea have remains which display no mean taste. It is a
melancholy fact that both Tatars and their remains are being
rapidly extinguished. Hardly any remain in Bessarabia. Thou-
sands are now being cruelly transported from the Crimea ; and
if we would study the diminishing type we must travel to the
distant desert of the Kuban. Yet the proverb is true enough,
that when we scratch the Russian we meet with the Tatar ; and
we may in the marchland of the Ukraine find much that can
only be explained as the heel-mark of the Polowtzian and
Drewensian invaders.
EEVIEW.
DaiUf lAfe and Origin of the Tasmanians. By James Boitwick,
RB-Q-.S. (Sampson Low, Son, and Mars ton, 1870.)
The Last of the Tasmanians ; ar, The Black War of Van Diemen's
Land. By James Bonwick, F.E.G.S. (Sampson Low, Son,
and Marston, 1870.)
Now that the Tasinanians have become so nearly extinct as to find
their sole surviving representative in the person of an aged female, it
is well that some attempt should be made to put on record a history
Digitized by
Google
96 Notes and Queries.
of this hapless race. Materiab for such a history have been zealoualj
collected in the colony by Mr. Bonwick, and the results of his labours
are given in the two interesting volumes cited above. Inverting the
order of their publication, that work is placed first which promises
the greater amount of interest to the Ethnologist — ^a work which in-
troduces us to the physical characters, the daily life, the language,
and the superstitions of the Tasmanians ; whilst the second work
tells the melancholy tale of their gradual decline.
The Tasmanians are described as having been a people of moderate
stature, and, compared with the Australians, stout and robust. The
skin was of a dark brown colour, or nearly black, and was ornamented
with cicatrices cut upon the chest, the shoulders, and the thighs ;
while the entire body was bedaubed with a mixture of grease and
red ochre, which was also liberally applied to the hair. The hair was
black, and often presented a cnsp and woolly appearance, but was
nevertheless extremely different from that of the Negro.
As weapons the Tasmanians used the waddy and a wooden spear
from 15 to 18 feet in length. Unlike the Australians, they had nei-
ther the boomerang nor tlie wommera or throwing-stick. Their
tools consisted of a stone axe, generally made of greenstone or ba-
salt, and a smaller implement described as a stone knife. It is nota-
ble that certain stone circles, and piles of stones evidently of human
erection, have been found in the interior of the island.
NOTES AND QUEEIES.
The Veddas of Ceylon. — Fuller information as to these tribes, £rom
new observation or accounts not generally known, would be of great
ethnological value. The Yeddas are understood to speak a Singha-
lese dialect containing Dravidian (Telugu) words, and, if so, are the
only known savage tribes speaking an Aryan language. Physically
they seem to belong rather to the indigenous non- Aryan tribes. It
is probable that they are a mixed race. There are papers on them
in the Society's Transactions (vols. ii. and iii.), and accounts iu
Prichard's 'Natural History of Man,' Sir John Lubbock's 'Pre-
historic Times,' Sir J. E. Tennent's ' Ceylon,' &c. But a much more
perfect account of their language, physique, and habits is required.
— Edwabd B. Ttlob.
Qeorgian and Sontal. — I note the following parallels between
Georgian and Sontal or the Central-Indian forms.
House oda, ada.
Arrow isari, sar.
Oda in Turkish is commonly " a room." — Hybe Clabke.
Water. — The Turkish for "water" is soo; the Georgian for
" drink " (thou) is soo. — Hyde Clabke.
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THE JOURNAL
OP THE
ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP LONDON.
Ordinary Meeting^ Jan. 11th, 1870.
Richard Kino, Esq., M.D., in the Chair.
New Members. — THe Earl op Dunraven and Mountearl,
K.P., F.R.S., P.R.G.S., F.S.A. ; Thomas Henry Baylis, Esq. ;
David Duncan, Esq., M.A.; John Edwards, Esq.; and J. F.
McLennan, Esq.
The following paper was read by the author :-r
X. On the KiTAi and Kara-Eitai. By Dr. Gustav Oppbrt.
While studying Oriental languages and ethnology, and prepa-
ring a critical history of Central Asia and India, my attention
has been directed to a people whose few descendants now live
in a state of dependency scattered over Asia : I allude to the
Kitai or Kara-Kitai.
In the Russian Government of Derbend, near the Caspian Sea,
in the Chanate of Kaitach (or Kara-Kaitach) , and in the Sibe-
rian district of Hi or Guldja, are found to this day in humble
condition the offspring of those who once governed Central
Asia and China.
The Kaitach and Kara-Kaitach are a very industrious race,
who in their Chanate live mostly as husbandmen, while their
brethren in Guldja excel as clever artisans. The whole Kitaian
population in both districts, who still show in their physiognomy
their Mongolian or Tatarian origin, will hardly amount to 50,000
souls. Till 1725 the Kaitach and Kara-Kaitach, near Derbend,
remained independent ; but they then submitted to the Russian
supremacy, and since 1799 their Chan or Usmei has enjoyed an
annuity from the Russian Government. They are now mostly
Mahommedans, though in Guldja some still adhere to their for-
mer belief.
This is all that at this moment remains of a people once
VOL. 11. p> 1
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
98 Dr. GusTAV Oppert — On the Kttai
supreme in Asia, reigning over Northern China and Central
Asia, and whose preponderance was felt even in Europe. The
Kitai are very likely of Tatarian or Mongolian race — an opinion
which is supported by the famous historian Rashideddin, who
calls them Kidan Tatse or Kitan Tatars*. The home of the
Kitai is to be found in those mountainous regions in the north of
Korea, whence all the rulers of China descended to the plains,
as in later times also did the Niutche and the Mandju. There,
in the north of the Chinese province Leaotong, they remained
for some time ravaging the imperial domains, and were dreaded
as dangerous neighbours, before they became of political conse-
quence. For their subsequent power they are mostly indebted
to their chieftain Apaoki, who at the end of the ninth and the
beginning of the tenth century contrived, by his great military
genius, united to a shrewd and excellent statemanship, not only
to raise his nation, and of course himself, to a position of the
utmost consequence, but also to extend his dominion so far, that
it reached from Kashgar and the Tsunling Mountains in the
west to the Pacific in the east. Korea and North China were
subject to his sway, and his chief capital was Leaoyang in Lea-
otong, until he changed it for Yan, the modem Peking. After
his death, which occurred a.d. 926, his successors continued
extending and strengthening their realm, until they ultimately
gave their name to the whole of Central Asia and China, — a
name not even now forgotten, as Kitai is the appellation by
which China is expressed in Russian.
As the terms Kitai and Kara-Kitai are promiscuously used for
the same nation, it is diffictUt to decide whether these two names
were also previously employed at the same time. The Tatarian
* With us it is customary to speak of Tatarian, Mongolian, Turkish, and
Tungeeze races, but I do not' believe that such is the case in the East. These
great classifications are, however, only very vague. According to Oriental
tradition, Turk was the son of Janhet ; the twin-brothers Tatar and Moghool
were.Turk'8 grandchildren, and Tungeez was the son of the famous Aghooz
Khan, also a descendant from Turk. Although I do not wish to be made
responsible for the correctness of these pedigrees, one may safdy derive from
them one conclusion, namely, that the progeny of these patriarchs regaided
themselves as near relationB,*though they did not always treat one another as
such. About the time of Gengyz these tribes passed under the name of Ta-
tars, and as they behaved like children of heU, they were considered to have
come from Tartarus. I do not know whether the Tatars were made acquainted
with the bad odour in which their name stood, but under the Gengyzkhanides
they repudiated that name and called themselves Mongols : afterwards they
found fault with this expression ; and if we read the works of Tamerlane or
of Baber we often find that they object to be called Mongols, and prefer as
l^eutlemen to be addressed as Turin ; now the European Turks do not consider
It polite to be called Turks, but prefer the title of Osmanlies. We therefbn
.see that in the East these different significations were applied at difierent
times to the same race.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
and Kara-Kitai. 99
tribes are very fond of expressing by certain colours the changes
of political condition to which a nation may be subjected. Black
or Kara has the meaning of dependency and servitude^ while
White or Ak has that of sovereignty and freedom. These
expressions were put before the name^ and Kara-Kitsi would
properly signify the dependent Kitai. But these colours are
employed only so long as they really describe the position of a
tribe ; for if a dependent horde becomes independent and sove-
reign, the former Kara or Black will be changed into Ak or
White ; the Tatars, to whom the mighty conqueror Tchingyz-
khan belonged, were named before his time f ara-Tatars, while
another tribe was called ^A-Tatars or White Tatars. This is
also the reason why the Emperor of Russia is caUed the White
Zar, and the divisions of Russia into White and Black express
the same meaning.
During their reign in China the Kitai undertook great expe-
ditions to the West ; and one of those, made in the middle of the
eleventh century, is mentioned by the well-known Primas of the
Jacobite Church, Gregorius Abulfaradg, in the year 1046 a.d., or
438 of the Hedgra. At that time the Kitai possessed five capital
towns of the first rank, 156 fortresses, and 209 cities of a third
rank ; 5002 hordes of Tatars were reduced to submission, and
60 kingdoms paid tribute. But this prosperity did not last long ;
after preponderating for 219 years (from 906 to 1125) the Kitai
were beaten by a kindred nation, the Niutche or Kin*.
Though defeated by the Niutche and subjected in China, the
Kitai were not doomed to extinction ; nay, they even raised a
more powerful empire, and again filled Asia and Europe with
tales of their prowess, grandeur, and riches. A prince of their
djmasty, Yeliutashe, went westwards with a number of his fol-
lowers, who preferred exile to slavery, and by lucky circum-
stances and great ability contrived to become the founder of a
large empire. All Central Asia, Samarkand and Bokhara in-
cluded, to the borders of China became his dominion. "The
Emperors of China were again afraid of their former foe and
had recourse to stratagems, as open enmity did not avail to post-
pone Yeliutashe^s exp^ition towards the East. The mighty and
victorious Sultan Sanjar defied him, and marched against him
at the head of a numerous army, but deemed himself happy
when with a few companions he reached the River Gihon, in
* The Kitai emperors, as soon as they had established their power, assumed
the title of Leao, or Iron ; while their victorious enemies, the Niutche, called
themselves the JTm, or AHuHj i. e. the ** OM,^^ I think this adoption of
bynames taken from metals should not be overlooked. It mav perhaps be
regarded as a proof that those people were well conversant witn the work-
ing of mines, especially if we consider that the native countries of both the
Kitai and the Niutche^are rich in minerals.
Digitiz^bfGoOgle
100 Dr. GusTAV Oppert — On the Kitai
1141^ after his dreadful defeat not far from Balkh. This is the
battle mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela.
But what still more enhances the interest of Yelintashe is^
that he represents a personage so often mentioned in the middle
ages, but whom nobody has before been able to trace to his pro-
per origin; he is no other than Prester John, or Presln/ter
Johannes.
The first chronicle in which the name of Presbyter Johannes
occurs, is that compiled by Otto, Bishop of Freisingen in Bavaria,
a grandchild of the Emperor Henry IV., a half-brother to the
Emperor Konrad III., and uncle to Frederick Barbarossa.
Otto relates that a powerful king, called the Presbyter Johannes,
had defeated in a most sanguinary battle the Samiarchs Jratres,
the kings of Persia and Media. Sultan Sanjar, together with
his brothers, reigned in the western part of Asia, and the word
" Samiar '' is nothing else than the name Sanjar. Otto had re-
ceived the news through the Syrian bishop of Gabala, who had
come to Asia to ask for assistance against the growing power of
the Atabek Zenky, who had taken possession of the strong city
of Edessa. Before leaving Asia, the Bishop of Gabala bad
been beleaguered by the Greek Emperor Johannes Comnenus
in Antioch, for the prince of Antioch, Raimund, had refused
to allow the Emperor to march with his troops through his
territory. It is this siege which is mentioned by the famous
traveller William Bubruquis as coeval with the appearance
of a mighty Prince in the North, named Coirchan of Kara
khatai. The title of the Prince of the Kara-Kitai was Kor-
khan, which means the Khan of the Khans, the Supreme
Khan, or, according to another explanation, may also signify
the Lord of the People. This title was used in the same way
as that of Pharaoh by the Egyptian kings. The first K in
Korkhan is a Kaf, which in the Turkish languages can be
pronounced as K, G, or J. Gorkhan or Jorkban sounds to the
Syrian ear very much like Jokhan or Jochanan, which is the
Syrian form for Johannes*. This being the case, it is easy to
see how the Bishop of Gabala could call the Kitai Korkhan,
Johannes or John. But this John is further described as a Nes-
torian and a Presbyter. Now it is generally known that the
Nestorian missionaries were spread over Central Asia and China,
and we have the respectable evidence of William Rubruquis,
who states that the Nestorian bishops, appearing seldom in l^eir
* The title of Korkhan (Kurkhan, Gurghan) was also in later times used
by Tatarian sovereigns, as, e. a., by Tamerlane, by his grandson, the famous
astronomer, Ulug Beg, and others; and if we had not shown it before, this
circiunstance alone would make it highly probable that the Kitai belonged
to the Tatarian race.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
and Kara-Kitai, 101
sees^ consecrated to the priesthood each male^ even the children
in the cradle. The Persian historian Mirkhond distinctly re-
marks that the daughter of the last Korkhan was a Christian.
Moreover the title of Presbyter Johannes was in the middle
ages held in great respect^ as it was then often announced that
the end of the world was near^ and the adherents of the Millen-
nium were waiting for the arrival of the l^sbyter Johannes as
the precursor of Christ. The first Prester John was succeeded
by four sovereigns of his family, who all reigned prosperously,
till the last, JUuku by name, was shamef^y deposed by his
own son-in-law, a Nayman prince, who had previously found at
the Court of the Korkhan shelter from the persecution of
Tehingyzkhan and had received the hand of the Princess Impe
rial, the heiress to the throne, and who now showed his gratitude
by ousting his benefactor. Rubruquis mentions that the last
Korkhan was succeeded by a Prince of the Nayman tribe, who
also took the title of Prester John. Kushluk only reigned as
Korkhan or Prester John a few years (from 1213 to 1218), when
he was totally defeated by the troops of Tehingyzkhan and kiUed
while flying from the field. Thirty years afterwards the French
monk and ambassador to the Oreat Khan, Johannes de Piano
Carpini, passed through the valley in which Kushluk was de-
feated. With him became extinct the princes who had the title
of Korkhan of Kara-Kitai, and he was the last prince of that
empire, though himself only a usurper. Another dynasty of
Kara-Kitai princes settled for some time, fix>m 1224 to 1364, in
Kirman ; but the memory of the empire of the Korkhan soon
passed away, and when the European travellers passed through
Asia, the existence of the Korkhan or real Presbyter Johannes
had already assumed a mythical aspect. The rapid progress of
the Mongolic conquests and the entire overthrow of all the pre-
vious empires, and of the whole political state of Asia, explain in
some degree why there exists no trustworthy history of these
times, and how a manifest falsification of history could have
been made and supported even up to the present day, I speak
here of those who contend that Unkkhan, the chief of the Ke-
raite tribe, was the real Prester John. This hypothesis is quite
unsupported ; for Unkkhan, who was never more than an insig-
nificant chieftain, and could not hold his own without the assist-
ance of Tehingyzkhan, and his father, Pesuka behadur, was not
in power, perhaps not even bom, in 1141, and was killed before
the usurper Kushluk, the last Prester John, had arrived at the
Court of the Korkhan.
Thus the mighty empire of the Korkhan had been destroyed
in the West by the troops of Tchingyzkhah, while in the East,
in China, he restored the Kitai, if not to their previous infitience',
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
102 Dr. GusTAV Opfert — On the Kitai
yet to independence. The Great Khan was anxious to strengthen
his forces on his expedition against the Emperor of the Kin^ and
nowhere could he find stauncher supporters than in the de-
scendants of the former rulers. Tchingyzkhan succeeded in
gaining the affection of the oppressed population ; and though
the Niutche, aware of the dangerous consequences of a revolt,
tried the utmost cruelty to deter their subjects from rising, yet
Yeliu Lieuko, a descendant of the imperial family of the Leao,
and therefore a relative of the Korkhan, contrived to unite his
forces with those of the Tatars, to defeat the Chinese, and to be
acknowledged as the sovereign of the Kitai, though naturally
recognizing the Great Khan as his souzerain. His family in-
herited the sovereignty ; and as long as the Mongolic dynasty
reigned in China, the Kitai also held their own, keeping up a
good understanding and friendship with the Tatar Emperors.
It is now intelligible how the Archbishop of Peking, Johannes
de Monte Corvino, could speak in his letter, dated from Peking,
on the 8th of January, 1305, of a neighbouring king Geoi^us,
a descendant of Prester John, with whom he stood on very inti-
mate terms ; and who, persuaded by his preaching, had left the
Nestorian church, had become a Roman CathoUc, was conse-
crated by him a priest, and used to administer in his royal gar-
ments during the service. This king Georgius was followed by
his son Johannes, a godson of the archbishop. Marco Polo, too,
mentions this king Georgius as the fourth (according to others
as the sixth) in descent from Prester John, of whose family he
is regarded as the head. " There are two regions in which they
exercised dominion. These in our part of the world are named
Og and Magog y but by the natives Ung and MongtU; in each of
these provinces is a distinct race of people. In Ung they are
Gog, and in Mongul they are Tatars.'^
Marsden, in his edition of 'Marco Polo,' despairs of explain-
ing this chapter ; but to me the mentioning of Gog and Magog
signifies the existence of a wall, that is of the Chinese wall, of
which Marco Polo nowhere speaks, because it was for the most
part destroyed by the Tatars, and then of no great use, as on
both sides of the wall obedience was paid to the same sovereign,
the Great Khan. But what makes us sure of the correctness of
this hypothesis is that the name of the wall is in the language
of the Kitai Ungu and of those who had to watch it Ungutti ;
and thus we see that by this Ung is clearly expressed the Chi-
nese wall, and that the Kitai lived near it.
Having thus proved the importance oi the people of the Kitai,
it only remains to add a few words on the tales of Prester John.
At the time when the rumour of this prince reached Western
Asia and Europe, the Crusaders were in a very bad position.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
and Kara-Kitai. 108
Stronghold after stronghold had fallen into the hands of the
Moslems, and despair began to fill their hearts. Is it therefore
astonishing, when the defeat of their fiercest enemy Sultan San-
jar excited the most sanguine hopes, that reports from the East
supported the excitement of expectation, and the simple truth
was shaped into marvellous forms ? We have thus to under-
stand that singular letter of Prester John, which was received
by the Pope, ttie Emperors of the East and West, and other
sovereigns, as those of France and Portugal. It is without the
least doubt spurious ; but it is of importance, as it shows how
easily men could be imposed upon during the middle ages.
Though the most heterogeneous things are reported in it, I can
prove that this letter is on the whole nothing but a bad copy
of the wonderful letter of Alexander the Oreat to his mother
Olympias, which we find in the work of Pseudo-Kallisthenes.
In the voyages and travels of Sir John Maundeville we meet
with a very extensive and amusing account of these tales.
But if that letter was spurious, repeated news and reports in-
duced Pope Alexander III. to write a letter to Prester John.
It is dated the 27th September, 1177, and signed at the Rialto
in Venice. His friend and physician Philippus was charged with
its safe delivery; and though this ambassador had previoiisly been
in the empire of the Korkhan, and knew much about it, we do
not hear what became of Philippus and his letter. Poetry soon
possessed itself of this interesting personage, and the epics and
romances of the middle ages abound with descriptions of the
splendour of Prester John. In later times, by a mistaken notion,
Prester John was supposed to live in Africa, and to be the
Abyssinian Negus. What makes the Presbyter Johannes so
important to history and geography is, that the voyages which
led to the discovery of the Cape of Oood Hope and of the sea-
way to the East Indies were undertaken in search of that mys-
terious Prince, as can be proved by the orders given to Bartolo-
meo Diaz. The reason why all former inquiries with respect to
Prester John led to no result may be ascribed to the circum-
stance that more attention was paid to the explanation of the
name than to the historical facts. Thus Joseph Scaliger con-
tends that Prester John, which is in Italian Preste Giani, stands
for the Persian word Prestegiani, which (though it is no Persian
word at all) should answer to the Greek airoardkuco^ ) Padesha
prestegiani means therefore an Apostolic or Christian king.
Another scholar explained it by Prester Chan, or the Chan
of the Adorers or Christians. Tzaga Zabus converts Presbyter
Johannes into Pretiosus Johannes (Precious John, or John pos-
sessing precious things) — a name still to be found on old maps
of Abyssinia. Cornelius a Lapide contends that Preste or Prete
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
104 Dr. GusTAV Opfert — On the Kitai
is the Portuguese Preto (black), and that Preto Joan means
Black John, a name for the Abyssinian Emperor. Paulus Guicius
calls Prester John Pedro Juan, or Peter John ; and the famous
scholar Sebastian Miinster, a contemporary of Luther, makes
of him a Presbyter Kohan or Presbyter Kohn. According to a
French explanation Presbyter Johannes is the Dalai Lama;
Preste corresponds to Lama,- and Criani means Dalai or Sea,
World (Persian Gehan), so that "Dalai Lama*' signifies a
Priest over a large sea or empire, a sort of Presbyter Universalis.
Joseph Stocklein describes him as the Presbyter or Great Lama of
Yunnan, the great Province near China, for Lama means in the
Tatarian languageCross ; and as it is a great dignity to be a Grand
Cross of a European Order, so it is likewise in Asia, where the
Great Lama or Grand Cross is the highest priest. The diflFer-
ence of opinion is still more glaring, if we remember that
Samuel Lee, in his edition of the travels of Ibn Batuta, makes
of him a Ferishta Jan, or John the Angel, while others regard
him as John the Slave. The great geographer Karl Bitter, iden-
tifying Prester John with the Keraite Prince Ung Khan, says
how easily could a Chinese title, as Vang Khan or Vang Rex, be
altered to Um Can, Ung Khan, Can Khan till it became Joan
Rex, — a proceeding somewhat similar to the derivation of fox
from alopex.
Otto of Freisingen connects Prester John with the Three Holy
Kings. He says that he was a descendant of the Magi. It ia
perhaps not generally known that in later times it was believed
that the Magi came from Eastern Asia, as we read, e. g., in the
Oriental history of the Armenian Prince Hayton and in other
chronicles. In the legends of the Three Kings, it is stated that
Melchior came from Nubia, Balthasar frt)m Saba, and Caspar
was king of Tharsis. These names occur first, as far as I know,
in Bede ; for it is difficult to prove that the chronicle of Flavius
Dexter, a friend of St. Jerome, which also contains these names^
was really written at that time and was not a later work* These
names now seem to me to indicate the countries from which
the Magi were supposed to have come ; Melchior is called the
king of Nubia, or the king of the Nile ; Malchijeor is a verbal
translation of the latter (Jeor being the Hebrew name for the
Nile). Balthasar is naturally Belshazzar, and Caspar is Cas-Bar,
the king of Central Asia, of Tharsis, or the Casia regio, where
we have to this day Kashmir, Kashgar, &;c. Thus we see that
these names express the countries in which the kings are said to
have reigned. It is quite different, however, with that set of
names which, besides others, are mentioned by Petrus Comestor
in his Scholastica historia, viz. Apellius, Amerus, and Damasius,
— ^names which, in my opinion, are derived from the prophet
Digitized by VjQOQ IC
and Kara-Kitai. 105
Isaiah (chap. viii. v. 4) . Damasius is derived in this instance
from Damask, Amerus from Samaria, and Apelliiis stands for
the king of Assyria, who is explained by Tertullian and other
early fathers to be the Diabolus or Apollyon.
By some German poets the legend of Prester John has also
been mixed up with that of the San-Gral, Wolfram von Eschen-
bach and Albrecht von ScharflRenberg contend that the San Gral
went to Prester John when the West was not deemed holy
enough to keep the precious treasure. In the Parcival of Wol-
fram, the Gral is described as a stone by which the knights o
the Gral are fed, with which the Phoenix bums himself, ana
whose knights, who are called Templers, defend the castle of
Salvatierra.
Salvatierra, also called Caatellum Salutis, lies in the Mancha
amidst the mountains of the Sierra Morena, and was the seat of
the knights from 1198 to 1210, when after a most obstinate de-
fence the fortress was taken by the Khalif Mohammed the Green.
These examples give us an insight into the mode in which his-
torians and poets formerly were wont to amalgamate historical
events with mythical traditions and personal inventions.
The history of the Kitai shows in an interesting manner how,
even in half-civilized ages, the most distant nations are brought
in contact with each other, and how legends may arise from mis-
stated facts, and influence for some time the destiny of powerful
realms. The Kitai gave their name to Asia; the victory of
their Korkhan over Sultan Sanjar originated the famous and
influential personage of Prester John, who was celebrated in
prose and in verse. To find him was one of the chief objects
of the French and Papal ambassadors to the Court of the Great
Khan, and was in later centuries the principal causes of the
voyages of the Portuguese navigators, and of their discovery both
of the Cape of Good Hope and of the sea-way to the East
Indies.
Discussion.
Mr. Htde Clarke said that Dr. Oppert had given them, in his
enumeration of the absurd etymologies assigned by men of learning
to Prester John, a caution as to that abuse of comparative philology
not uncommon in the present day, and which sought to establish
ethnological relationships by the association of incompatible roots,
while in his own instance he had shown the true services that phi-
lology may lender to ethnology.
Mr. Clarke observed that Kitai, under the form of Cathayy had
been made a popular name by our poets, and was down to the seven-
teenth century a well-known term. The use of colours and metals
as distinctions of nations deserved comment. From what he had
seen he believed the Black and White cap still distinguished tribes
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
lOG Col. A. Lane ¥ox—Note on the
and classes among the inhabitants of the Caucasus, opposite to the
Kitai. He concurred with Dr. Oppert in believing that the applica-
tion of the terms Manchoo, Mongol, Tongoos, and Turk must have
been interchangeable in many cases, or that they are much mixed up.
The languages are distinct (except some accidental identity of com-
municated roots), but there is a c;eneral grammatical affinity suggest-
ing relationship. He believed they might be regarded as holding the
same relationship within themselves as the more southern groups, the
Tibetan (including the Caucasian), the Chinese, and Indo-Chinese.
Dr. Oppert hi^ called attention to an interesting ethnological
fact, that the Kitai having once exercised a great empire have now
dwindled to 50,000 souls. Mr. Clarke considered this to be due to
the fact that a race of small numerical resources had become domi-
nant over many others ; the certain result in such cases is the decline
of the dominant race, if not, as in the case of the Bomans, extinction.
A dominant race can only be maintained by large and compact
bodies of its members, as in the case of the Turks, the Magyars, and
the English, but when these are diffused over greater numbers they
must decline.
The following note was then read by the author : —
XI. Note on the Use of the New-Zealand Mere.
By Col. A. Lane Fox, F.S.A.
In a paper which I read last year at the United Service Institution
upon " Primitive Warfare/' the subject of which had reference
to the origin and development of the weapons of savages and
early races, I ventured an opinion that the Mere or Pattoo-Pat>
too of the New 2ealanders ought to be classed rather with axes
or thrusting- weapons than with clubs ; and that in all probability
this weapon derived its origin from the stone celt which is well
known to be common to those regions, as, indeed, it is to the
stone period of nearly every part of the globe.
My reasons for this opinion were the following : —
First, that it is usuaUy composed of jade or some other hard
stone, — materials of which the celt is also constructed in New
Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, and the adjoining isles.
Secondly, that the Mere is not unfrequently ground to a sharp
edge at the end like a celt, a form which would not have been
given it unless it was either itself used for striking at the end,
or derived from a similar implement so used.
Thirdly, that amongst the various forms of the New-Zealand
Mere, all the connecting-links between it and the celt are found ;
one specimen in the Christy Collection (fig. 3), believed to be
irom New Zealand, has a straight sharp edge at the end, and
could only have been used as a celt. Many others, as for ex-
ample, fig. 4, in the Christy Collection, resemble celts that are
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Use of the New-Zealand Mere,
107
slightly rounded at the small end to receive the hand ; and the
iiltimate perfection of the weapon with a carved knob at the
small end (fig. 5) appears to be merely a development of the
earlier forms.
Fourthly, that similar stone clubs are found in Ireland, one
of which, from my Collection, is here given (fig. 6), and another
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.
is figured in the ' Ulster Journal of Archaeology'* ; these are
evidently stone celts similarly cut at the small end to fit the
hand.
Fifthly, that analogy would lead one to suppose that so pecu-
liar a weapon as the Mere, not being the best adapted, either as
to its form or composition, to be used as a hand-club, must have
been derived from some other implement of traditional usage
amongst the people, it being a fact capable of demonstration that
nearly all the weapons of savages have derived their form from
an historical development, and are capable of being traced back
through their varieties to earlier and simpler forms, tvith as much
certainty as the various forms of animal and vegetable life.
Some time after I had read my paper, and before it had been
published in the Journal of the Institution, Sir Charles W. Dilke
happened to see my collection of prehistoric antiquities, and in
looking over the series of stone celts from various countries,
amongst which I had included some of these Meres, according
to the classification which I had adopted, he took up one of them
and said to me, " Do you know the way in which the New Zea-
landers use this weapon ? They do not strike with it like a club
or sword, but use it in prodding the enemy behind the ear with
the sharp end ;" and he then told me that he had obtained this
information from a New-Zealand chief, when travelling in New
Zealand.
I afterwards mentioned the subject to Dr. Hooker, and he,
having been struck by the circumstance, determined to write to
New Zealand and obtain further information on this point from
• Ulster Journal of Archwology, No. 18, April 1857.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
108 Col. A. L^NE Fox— Note on the
the old M aories. The result has been the following correspon-
dence : —
Dr. Hooker to Col. Lane Fox.
"Sept. 30th, 1809.
" Dear Col. Lane Fox. — I wrote to New Zealand respecting
the use of the Mere as a thrusting-weapon^ and have received
the enclosed answer. If you think it worth while, will you com-
municate it, or a copy of it, to the Ethnological Society and
return me the original.
" Ever truly yours,
"Jos. Hooker/'
Eev. Jas. W. Stack to Dr. Haast.
"' St. Stephens, Kaiapoi,
May 17th, 1869.
" My Dear Haast, — I trust you will forgive me for leaving
your kind note so long unacknowledged. With regard to Dr.
Hooker's inquiry, I have obtained the necessary information for
you from the old Maories. The Mere was, as he conjectures,
a ^ thrusting-instrument.' The warrior before delivering the
thrust generally seized his enemy by the hair, and then drove
the point* of the Mere either into the temple or at the angle
of the jaw just below the ear, or at the back of the head. A
down stroke or a blow with the sharp edge would have shattered
the Mere. It was grasped with the thumb towards the blade.
If I have omitted any point please let me know.
" Believe me, faithfullv yours,
" James' W. Stack."
" To Dr. Haast,
" Catiferbury, New Zealand."
From this letter, which entirely corroborates the information
received from Sir Charles Dilke, it will be seen that the Mere is
used exactly in the way that a stone celt or any other weapon of
the axe- type would be used, if held in the hand without a handle.
I am therefore confirmed in my conjecture that it must have
derived its origin from the celt, and probably from a period
when the celt was used in this manner, perhaps before the idea of
using it in a handle had been thought of. As these weapons are
known to have been handed down as heirlooms, and to be much
prized by the chiefs as symbols of office, they have probably (as
not unusually happens in like cases) retained their primitive
cliaracter, and may therefore be r^arded as belonging to the
class of objects which Mr. E. B. Tylor has aptly termed " sur-
vivals." We have not far to go to find the stone or jade celt
• It should rather be the endj for the Mere is not pointed. — ^A. L. F.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Use of the New-Zealand Mere, 109
actually used at the present time in the manner I have described.
Fig. 7 is a drawing showing the manner in which the South
p. - Australians use their celts, grasping the small end
in the hand and prodding with the broad sharp end,
the fore arm of the holder itself supplying the place
of a wooden handle. The drawing was kindly sent
tQ me by Mr. Hodder Westropp, and was sketched
by an eye-witness, Mr. Chas. Seymour.
I believe that the evidence aflforded by the study of weapons
and implements will eventually prove to be of the utmost value
as a means of traaing back the connexion of races and the
sources of early culture, owing to the persistent manner in which
all savages preserve their ancient types. Whilst language, hav-
ing no material existence previously to the introduction of writ-
ing, is liable to constant change as the words are passed &om
mouth to mouth ; so much so that amongst the Polynesian and
Melanesian races, the Bishop of Wellington has told us, there
are no fewer than 200 languages, differing from each other as
much as Dutch differs from German ; these implements, having
been handed down from generation to generation, or having
been otherwise preserved in their original forms, constitute the
most enduring memorials of the ancestors of the people, and are
often found to present strong family likenesses in regions re-
motely separated.
I have not been able to trace the Mere with certainty out of
New Zealand ; but it is worthy of mention that Dr. Klemm, in his
work on the Weapons and Implements of Savages*, gives an
illustration of a stone Mere, which he attributes to the ancient
Peruvians (fig. 8) . Its identity with the New-Zealand Mere is
p. g evident ; but little reliance can be placed on an
^* ' isolated example. Some of the small wooden
clubs from British Guiana very much resemble the
Mere, and those constructed of bone from Nootka
Sound (fig. 9) still more closely resemble the New-
Zealand weapon. I also exhibited a wooden club of
the same form from New Guinea, the ornamenta-
tion upon which is so perfectly identical with that
of the New-Zealand canoes as to leave no doubt
of a connexion between them. Dr. Klemm also
mentions some Meres from the New Hebrides;
but I have not been able to verify that, and I
believe it to be a mistake of the author.
• ' Werkzeuge und WRffen,' by Dr. Gustav Klemm, p. 2G.
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110 Dr. Julius Haast — On certain Prehistoric Remains
The following paper was then read by the Hon. Secretary : —
XII. On certain Prehistoric Remains discovered in New Zea-
land^ and on the Nature of the Deposits in which they
occurred. By Dr. Julius Haast^ F,R.S.
The title of these notes might be considered scarcely appropriate
if the term prehistoric were applied exclusively to works of art
discovered in countries which, like those of Europe and Asia,
possess historical records of ancient date on which dependence
may be placed. New Zealand, having been inhabited by Euro-
pean settlers only for the last thirty or forty years, and having
been before that time exclusively the abode of savages, has no
such history ; and therefore the term is here used in a geological
sense to designate remains of human workmanship found iu
beds of quaternary formation, the age of which may be coeval
with strata of the northern hemisphere, in which similar objects
have been discovered. These deposits are, moreover, of so curi-
ous a nature that a description of their mode of formation may
not be without interest even to the European geologist.
But before entering upon this subject I may perhaps be per-
mitted to glance at the traditions of the native population of
these islands in reference to their origin : these are, however, of
a very contradictory character. According to the generaUy
accepted traditions of the natives, which are apparently well
sustained by the genealogies of many tribes in several parts of
these islands, the ancestors of the Maori race arrived here in a
few large canoes, about five hundred years ago, from an island
called Hawaiki, situated in a northerly direction from New
Zealand. Increasing rapidly, they spread in all directions in
the Northern Island where they first landed ; they then crossed
Cook^s Straits and peopled also the Southern Island. Con-
sidering the natural productions of New Zealand, the compara-
tive scarcity of animal and vegetable substances available for
the sustenance of human life, and the savage and warlike cha-
racter of the Maories, I do not think that in so comparatively
short a time these few immigrants could have grown into so
numerous a population as was found here when New Zealand
was first visited by Europeans. The native population was then
estimated at several hundred thousands.
The same traditions state also that the immigrants found the
islands uninhabited, and consequently there could have been
no contest with aboriginal inhabitants. But the fact that the
Maories are a mixed race, in which Malayan, Papuan, and (in a
minor degree) Mongolian blood are apparently blended, seems
to forbid such an assumption, although its advocates suggest
the possibility that the present inhabitants of New Zealand
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
discovered in New Zealand. Ill
mighty during their migration^ have mixed freely with other
races*.
Other inquirers state that these accounts are erroneous^ and
that^ according to other and more reliable traditions^ the present
native inhabitants in New Zealand are a mixed race ; that the
original Papuan population intermarried with the more civilized
newcomers from some island or islands in the north-east Pacific
ocean ; and that all traces of the original language of the former
have been lost.
These contradictory accounts are foreign to the scope of these
notes^ and I do not propose to discuss them except in so far as
they may affect the question of the relative age of flint or stone
implements found in New Zealand ; but I may at once state my
conviction that these islands have been inhabited much longer
than the current traditions of the so*called Hawaiki immigrants
would suggest.
I hope, when publishing hereafter the results of my excava-
tions of Dinomis remains^ to prove convincingly that these spe-
cies have been extinct much longer than has been generally
admitted. I shall then also show more fully that the Maories
have not even a tradition about them^ and that the huge birds
had doubtless disappeared long before the race which at present
inhabits these islands arrived here, or that the Moa has been so
long extinct that every record of it has been lost.
Several of my friends (amongst them the Rev. James Stack,
of Kaiapoi, Mr. A. Maekay, Native Commissioner in this island,
and several other gentlemen well acquainted with the natives)
have at my request made careful inquiries on the subject, and
all without exception have foimd, in sifting the Maori traditions,
that beyond the fact that the Moa was a bird and that its fea-
thers resembled those of the Kiwi or Apteryx, the natives did
not possess any information about it.
* I extract the following passage from a letter from my friend the Rev.
James Stack, of Kaiapoi, of whom I made inquiries on the subject : — *^ The
subject of your in(^uirj^ is one^ in which I have taken some interest, but the
result of my investigations leai^ me to very different conclusions from those
of Mr. Taylor and others. From inquiries here and in the north I am per-
suaded tliat there is not a shadow of evidence to prove the existence of an
aboriginal race in New Zealand when the Maories arrived five hundred years
ago.
** The existence of such a race at the Chathams, coupled with the fact that
great diversities of expression are noticeable amonffst the Maories, may suggest
the probability of their having found the islaucu preoccupied, fiut Maori
traditions are all against the supposition.
" K any race inhabited these islands prior to the Maori occupation of them,
that race was extinct and left no visible trace of its existence. The variety of
features existing amongst the native race I attribute to their intermingling
with Papuans, Malays, and Mongolians in their progress to these islands.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
112 Dr. Julius Haast — On certain Prehistoric Remains
The Maories^ moreover, attribute it8 extinction to a great
fire, called the Fire of Tamatea, which they assert swept the
Canterbury plains about five hundred years ago, the smoulder-
ing remains of which may, as they think, be still seen in the
Rakaia Gorge. These so-called smouldering remains are, how-
ever, seams of lignite in combustion, and this fact alone proves
the legendary character of their traditions. The proverb he Moa
kai hau {" di wind-eating Moa^^) is the only trace which the
Rev. J. Stack could find of any allusion in the sayings of the
ancient inhabitants to the existence and habits of these huge
birds. If it be true, as I have been informed, that it is a favourite
habit of the African Ostrich to stand with its beak wide open
towards the wind, such a coincidence in the habits of two allied
huge terrestrial birds would certainly be very curious, and woidd
clearly show that, although all other tracer have been lost, the
proverbial saying has survived, and moreover it would compel
us to believe in its correctness.
Concerning the traditions on this subject in the North Island,
the Bev. W. Colenso, writing in 1842, showed convincingly that
no value attached to the native accounts ; in fact it seems to me
evident that the present native race, unable otherwise to account
for the huge remains of the Moa found sometimes washed out
from the postpliocene alluvium, and at other times scattered
about on the open plains, took refuge in miraculous legends.
On comparing the Moa-bones with those of other living spe-
cies of birds, they found, undoubtedly, that in their principal
characteristics they most resembled those of the Kiwi or Apte-
ryx, which were sometimes mixed with them ; and this fact may
account for the tradition concerning the similarity of the fea-
thers. In drawing a conclusion from our present knowledge of
the subject, there is the greatest probability that at the time the
Maories arrived, the race which hunted the Moa was either ex-
tinct or had dwindled down to a small remnant living in the
interior of the South Island.
The new comers must, moreover, have been greatly advanced
in comparison with the original inhabitants, as they were able
to build canoes and make implements for the purposes of agri-
culture.
The unpolished stone implements found in the Moa-ovens ^
* I shall call the race which was contemporary with the Dinomis, and
in whof^e cooking-places or ovens the remains of those huge birds were
found, Moa-hunters. These Moa-himters, like the present native race, dug
shallow pits in the around in which they cooked their food by means of
heated stones, on which water was poured in order to generate steam. In
several localities in this island unusually lar^e ovens of this description have
been discovered, in or near which split and sometimes charred Moa-bones
are found, togetner with chips of stone used as knives.
Digitized by VjQOQ IC
discovered in New Zealand. 113
resemble, if we judge from the way they are manufactured,
rather those of the Amiens beds than the true Maori imple-
ments, which are highly finished and polished. Those which
are found in old burial-grounds, pahs, battle-fields, and some-
times even deep below the ground are all of the latter character,
and are quite unlike the primitive stone implements of the Moa-
hunter.
I also wish to point out that the stone implements I am about
to describe, notwithstanding their great age, resemble more
closely in their form and polish the Maori implements than
those of the Moa-hunter. May not this be an additional proof
that the different species of Dinornis have been extinct for ages ?
There is at the same time no doubt in my mind that the extinc-
tion of the Moa was principally caused by the agency of man,
either directly by being used as food, or indirectly by being
driven from their genial feeding-places amongst the grass and
scrub of the plains and low hills into the dense forest or the
mountain-regions, where the food necessary for their subsistence
and the conditions needful for their reproduction could not be
obtained.
Comparing the degree of advancement of New Zealand at the
time of its colonization with that of Europe, we are led to con-
clude that it was then as far advanced as Europe had been in
the neolithic age, while the Bruce- Bay stone implements here-
after to be described, and still more the chipped and unpolished
stone implements of the Moa-hunter, represent the far more
remote time of the pateolithic period of the mother country.
But another explanation might be offered from the few data at
our command, namely, that the inhabitants of the coast, being
immigrants from more advanced countries, already used polished
stone implements, whilst the older inhabitants of the country
living in the interior, whither they had followed the Dinornis,
were still in a more primitive state of civilization. And is it
not possible that in Europe also similar conditions may have
been in operation? so that two different races may have existed
contemporaneously — a primitive one in the forest fastnesses and
near the lakes in central Europe, and a more advanced one in
the coast regions or along the banks of great rivers ; the new-
comers having either forcibly taken possession of the country, or
found it deserted as no longer offering good hunting-grounds to
its first inhabitants.
In a paper printed in the Journal of the Geological Society
of London ^, I have treated of the glacial deposits at the west
coast of this island, and shown that many morainic accumula.
• Vol. xxiii. 1867, p. 34'2.
Digitized by VjOO^ IC
114 Dr. Julius Haast — On certain Prehistoric Remains
tions not only reached the shores of, but also entered into the
sea, where they still form bold headlands. Many of them ex-
hibit all the characteristics of lateral or medial, and others of
terminal moraines. In the small sketch-map accompanying the
paper referred to, I have marked in general outlines how far
these remarkable moraines reached and where they formed the
principal headlands. Among them are two conspicuous bluffs
called the Makowiho and Heratanewha points, which are the
two lateral moraines of an enormous glacier formerly descending
from the western slopes of the southern Alps by the Makowiho
and Waitaha valleys. It is evident from the present configura-
tion of that part of the country, that when the huge glacier had
retreated within the ranges, its lateral moraines stood out boldly
in the sea Like two walls. At that period a shallow bay existed
between them, washing the western foot of the southern Alps.
In this bay two rivers, the Makowiho and Waitaha (the outlets
of the retreating glaciers), emptied themselves, flowing along or
near the two lateral moraines, and bringing with them ample
material to advance their deltas in the bay. At the same time
another agency was at work obliterating that shallow bay by
forming it into a lagoon. Littoral beds were deposited by
marine currents travelling fix)m south to north, assisted by the
powerful north-western and north-eastern gales, which in their
turn assisted, by forming a very heavy surf, to throw up a large
bank of sand and shingle between the two walls, crossing from
near the extremity of Makowiho point in the north to the
northern side of the Heratanewha wall, about a mile from its
western extremity. The two rivers continuing to deposit their
shingle in the lagoon thus enclosed, soon formed shingle-beds
along the two walls, reaching in time the littoral deposits, and
leaving in the centre a shallow lake, which in its turn was gra-
dually in part silted up and in part filled by decaying vegetable
matter. This former lake-bed still forms a plain, severid miles
in breadth and length, covered with a scanty vegetation of
sphaffnumy sedges, rushes, and ferns peculiar to such marshy
soil ; while the surroimding sides, along the sea, along the river-
beds, and on the mountain-slopes, are clothed with a high and
luxuriant forest.
The small geological sketch-map (PI. XII. fig. 1) will give,
better than any description, an insight into the peculiar struc-
ture of this portion of New Zealand.
When the highly profitable gold-fields in the pliocene allu-
vium, and in the river-beds crossing it near Hokitika, were all
taken up by diggers who had arrived in great numbers on the
west coast, the rest sought paying claims in other directions,
and many set to work in localities where scarcely any one would
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discovered in New Zealand. 115
have thought that payable ground existed. Amongst these
localities were the sea-beaches^ where in many instances for-
tunes have been made by their lucky owners. These sea-
beaches were generally situated between two headlands^ often
several miles distant from each other^ and where the slopes of
the sea-bottom and of the shores were shallow. Here, after
working through the beds of shingle and sand near high- water
mark, layers of "black sand'' are frequently found, reposing
mostly on shingle-beds cemented into a conglomerate by oxide
of iron. When the deposits were in such a position that the
tides did not interfere with the labours of the miners, several
beds were generaUy found below the first, often of equal or even
greater richness ; but owing to the impossibility of keeping the
water out, these lower beds have not hitherto received that
attention which they deserve. Instead of sinking lower down
in their claims near the sea-shore, the miners have gone inland
seeking another " lead,'' as it is technically termed.
During my last journey along the west coast of this island, in
March and April 1868, I had an opportunity of observing how
these auriferous beds were being formed, and I found that some
of the diggers were, from a practical point of view, already
well acquainted with their mode of formation. Thus, on one
portion of the coast between Makowiho point and the mouth of
the Karangarua river, called Hunt's beach, the sea-coast is very
shallow and sandy. Here during fine south-westerly weather
large masses of sand are accumulating in and above the tidal
boundaries. At such times only light winds are blowing, and the
surf IB consequently of no great force ; but when an occasional
north-west or north-east storm rages along the coast, the masses
of sand deposited during the preceding fine weather are, as it
were, undei^oing a process of natural sluicing. Generally the
greater portion of the sand is removed, but in favourable spots,
sheltered either by a slight indentation in the coast-line or by
some large pieces of drifted timber, its heavier particles remain ;
these consist of black iron -sand (both magnetic and titaniferous
oxide of iron) associated with small garnets and with gold.
These black layers are often one to two inches thick, and repose
upon coarse quartzose sands.
As soon as a storm has subsided, the " beachers " or '^ sur-
facers," as they are called, examine the coast-line near their
houses. When they come upon one of the rich spots, the fine
particles of gold being often visible to the naked eye, they at
once remove the black layer of sand out of the reach of the tide,
and wash it when convenient.
During their search for beach-diggings the miners reached
Bruce Bay. There they found three " leads " running parallel
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116 Dr. Julius Haast — On certain Prehistoric Remains
with the coast-line, the one nearest the sea heing the shortest,
the second intermediate in length, and the last and most inland
one the longest. I may here observe that there were no indica-
tions whatever to guide the miner in his search, and their whole
extent and general features were discovered from experience in
prospecting and following the auriferous leads in both directions.
Where at this coast ancient level strips of land exist dose
to the sea, which are, however, often breached by the waves, we
find that the usual forest vegetation grows to the water's edge :
but generally the level land is of quite recent origin, as the land
is gaining upon the sea, and new ground is continually formed.
In localities of this nature we observe that the more we advance
from high- water mark inland, the more luxuriant becomes the
vegetation, exhibiting three distinct belts of peculiar growth.
This is well shown in Bruce Bay (PL XII. fig. 2). There is
generally above high-water mark a zone 50-100 feet broad, con-
sisting of fine drift-sand usually forming small hillocks, amongst
which a great mass of drift-wood is decaying, but in which no
other vegetation, except a few fungi on the rotten wood, makes its
appearance. Then follows a second belt, also of sand, 80-150
feet broad, in which the drift-wood has already entirely disap-
peared, and which is covered by vegetation peculiar to such
localities, consisting of sedges, rushes, and a few plants of higher
organization. The following plants grow principally in this
second or *' Coprosma-acerosa belt,'' as I propose to call it;
namely, Coprosma acerosa, Jvncus maritimus, Desmoschomus
spiralis, Scirpus maritimus, Leptospermum scopiarum, Euphorbia
glauca, Convolvulus soldanella, and Discaria toumatou,
A third distinct zone follows, from 300-500 feet broad, com-
monly called the " scrub-belt.'' The main mass of its vegeta-
tion consists of Coriaria ruscifolia, Coprosma petiolata, Coprosma
Baueriana, Veronica salicifolia, Fucfisia excorticata, Griselinia
littoralis, Phormium tenax, and some more shrubby plants, gene-
rally with a dense undergrowth of ferns belonging to the genera
Asplenium, Polypodium^ Lomaria, &;c.
The boundary between the first and second belt is not so di-
stinct as that between the others, especially between the [' shrub "
and " forest-belt," which is generaUy sharply defined.
In Bruce Bay, where the ground is rather swampy, the vegeta-
tion of this last-mentioned belt consists of the following trees : —
Podocarpus dacrydioides, Podocarpus Totara, Dacrydium ctgnres^
sinum, IMocedrus Doniana, Weinmannia racemosa, MetrocCderos
lucida. Several species of Coprosma, Pittosporum, and fem-
trees, as, for instance, Cyathea Smithii and Dicksonia squarrosa,
grow between and below them, while the Khipogonum scandens,
the '' supple Jack " of the colonists, interlaces the whole with its
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discovered in New Zealand. 117
numerous flexible stems. Where the Kiekie or Preycinetia
Banksii occurs^ which is not unfrequeot^ this forest zone is
almost impenetrable.
When I arrived in Bruce Bay the two auriferous leads situated
in the beginning of the second and third belts had already been
worked out, and the miners were exclusively at work on the
third lead situated in the forest-belt, where they had to sink
13-15 feet before the auriferous beds were reached. After
having removed the large trees growing here, sometimes 4 feet
in diameter, and standing closely together upon 8-12 inches of
vegetable soil, in which the roots run horizontally, the miners
passed generally through the following strata before the au-
riferous sands were reached : —
ft. in.
Flattened lieach-shingle mixed with black sand 4 0
Black sand containing a little gold 0 2
Quartzose and black sands alternating repeatedly with each
other 1 1
Large flattened shingle with some black, iron, and quartzose
sandS; but not auriferous enough to pay for the extraction
oftheffold 0 5
Fine black sand, a little auriferous 1 0
Very coarse gravel 1 7
Auriferous black iron-sand, which is the layer of wash-dirt
excavated for sluicing 0 6
14 9
This last layer reposes upon a bed of coarse gravel, which,
being cemented by an argillaceous matrix, has materially assisted
to retain the fine gold in the black sand above it.
From an examination of the section (PI. XII. fig. 2) it will be
seen that a long period of time must have elapsed before such a
succession of beds could be formed, because it is evident that
the beaches have not been always receiving new additions, but
deposits have been thrown up and again partially removed ac-
cording to the prevailing winds. It is also clear that since the
formation of these littoral deposits a slight upheaval of this part
of the coast has taken place, the edge of the forest-belt being
situated about 4 feet above the highest flood-line.
Again, there is evidence that since the formation of these beds
oscillations in the relative position of land and sea have taken
place, as proved by a surface-layer of wash-dirt in the Coriaria
or third belt, overlying unconformably the more inclined first-
formed strata ; all of which tends to confirm my opinion that a
long lapse of time was requisite for the formation of these beds,
and for the growth of the dense vegetation which now covers
them.
If we examine the different belts of vegetable life followina
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118 Dr. Julius Haast — On certain Prehistoric Remains
each other with such distiiictness as we go inland^ additional evi-
dence is offered that considerable time was necessary to change
the Coprosma-acerosa belt into the scrub-belt^ and a still longer
period had to elapse for the formation of a sufficient thickness
of vegetable mould to allow the forest-trees to grow to such
large dimensions ; some of them which I measured were 4 feet
in diameter. In the same forest many and often still larger
trees are lying prostrate on the ground^ and in all stages of
decay; sometimes they are only indicated by long mossy ridges,
so that we may safely conclude that the present forest- vegetation
is not the first one, but that it was preceded by trees of the same
species, and often of large dimensions, which formerly grew
there.
In one of the claims in this last described forest-belt, on the
bottom of the wash-dirt, reposing directly upon the argillaceous
gravel, a party of miners, consisting of S. Fiddean^ J. Sawyer,
and T. Harrison, found a stone chisel (PL XIII. fig. 2) and
a sharpening-stone (PL XIII. fig. 1) lying dose to each other;
the former was broken, having been accidentally struck by the
pick when the miners were loosening the wash-dUrt. The stone
chisel is made of a dark greenish chert, and is partly polished;
the sharpening-stone is made of a coarse greyish sandstone,
which I found in situ about ten miles south of this locality, near
the mouth of the river Piringa.
The two stone implements were found a few days before my
arrival, and it was quite accidentally in looking at the claim that
I heard of their discovery. They are now in the Canterbury
Museum, New Zealand.
I measured carefully the distance from high-water mark to
the exact spot where they were discovered, and found it to be
525 feet, crossing the different belts as foUows : —
feet
First, or drift-wood belt 63
Second, or Coproama-acerosa belt 06
Third, or Conaria belt 390
Fourth, or White-pine belt 37
526
The beds through which the miners had been working were
quite undisturbed, and some very large trees had been growing
just above that portion of their claim near the centre of which
these stone implements had been found.
Owing to the dense forest covering the ground everywhere on
the west coast of this island, these beaches are generally used for
travelling, the favoiirable time of the receding tides being selected.
I can easily imagine, therefore, how these tools mav have been
yCoogle
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discovered in New Zealand, 119
left behind. When travelling with Maories along that coast I
have^ daring a rest of a few moments^ seen them repeatedly pull
out a piece of greenstone and polish or cut it until the mot
d'ordre to proceed was again given by me. In the same way
the owner of these implements may have set to work^ and when
starting again either forgotten them or left them behind when
surprised by an enemy.
The character of these implements shows that the people in-
habiting or visiting this island at that remote period were much
more advanced in civilization than the Moa-hunters^ whose tools
consisted only of chipped pieces of sandstone^ flint, and similar
siliceous rocks without any attempt at polish. I am not ac-
quainted with the rate of growth of our New-Zealand forest-
trees, but have no doubt that by far the greater portion of them
grow very slowly, especially when compared with Australian, or
even some European and North- American trees.
A fair criterion by which to judge is offered in our New-
Zealand gardens, where the native trees, which are raised with
great diflSculty, grow only a few feet in six or eight years, whilst
the introduced trees planted as seed or seedlings at the same
time as the endemic vegetation, form in that time conspicuous
trees often 20-30 feet high.
To sum up the evidence we at present possess as to prehistoric
remains in New Zealand, I may state that the most primitive
implements hitherto discovered arc those found in or near Moa-
ovens. They are simply chipped from boulders and blocks of
siliceous rocks. In the Manuherikia valley, in the Province of
Otago, where many Moa-ovens have been discovered, an old
workshop has been found where a great many chips and blocks
thrown away as useless are still lying together, making us well
acquainted with the mode in which those primitive Moa-hunters
manufactured their tools. The stone implements found in Bruce
Bay, and described in this paper, are more highly finished ; and
many others of similar characters have been obtained in the
Wellington Province during the dr linage of swamps and the
construction of roads, often several feet below the surface, and
under the roots of trees of enormous size. Others were occa-
sionally found in the Canterbury plains during the operations
of ditching and deep ploughing, but all these implements are
more or less polished, and resemble in many respects those of
the present native population. I wish to point out, however,
that, although these tools are much more perfect than those
found in the Moa-ovens, I am not able to say which are of the
greater antiquity. It may be possible that after the interval of
a great lapse of time various races arrived in New Zealand who
possessed a higher degree of civilization than the original in-
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120 Dr. J. Haast — On New-Zealand Prehistoric Remains,
habitants. Moreover, the latter were perhaps living only in the
interior, whither they had followed the retreating Dinomis.
In several islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans two distinct
races are now living — ^the more civilized near the coast, and the
original and inferior race near the mountains. In order to
arrive at a solution of this question it will, however, be neces-
sary for competent observers to study the approximate age and
position of the Moa-ovens in this and the Otago Province much
more closely than has been done hitherto.
EXPLANATION OF PLATES Xn. and XIIL
Plate XII.
Fig. 1. Geological map of Bruce Bay, New Zealand. Scale 4 miles to 1 inch.
2. Section from N.N.W. to S.S.E. across the deposits in Bruce Bay,
showins the four belts of vegetation, and the three auriferous
^ leads : in the most inland lead the stone implements were
found. Scale, horizontal and vertical, 80 feet to 1 mch.
Plate XIII.
Fig. 1. Sharpening-stone found in Bruce Bay. Half size.
2. Stone chisel found in Bruce Bay, showing both front and side view.
Half size.
DrscussioN.
Mr. BoNWiOK thought that the question of relative antiquity of
the implements could be settled by geology. If that third inhmd
auriferous deposit had been brought along the beach by currents,
then, in spite of the argument of a change of vegetation on the spot,
the formation would be comparatively recent; but as the sunJcen
pit bore much of the likeness of an ordinary digging, the whole
would give a greater antiquity. The map furthermore indicated
moraines near the sea, marking the former far more considerable
elevation of the country around that formation; wliile the meta-
morphic rocks, the source of gold, are placed above the deposit, as
though it had been brought down from the mountain-ranges in the«
ordinary way, and not in from the sea.
Mr. Hyde Clarke called attention to the question of the ethno-
logical capacity for extension within a limited period. Dr. Haast *
doubted whether 600 years, or 15 generations, would be sufficient for
three canoesfuU to supply the alleged population of several hundred
thousands. Mr. Clarke thought the instance of Lower Canada
worthy of investigation. The French population at the conquest
by General "Wolf was 30,000, and without immimtion in a century
it had increased twenty or thirtyfold. Supposing the 30,000 had
been obtained by natural increase instead of by immigration, then
1000 or 1500 a century before would at the same rate produce 30,000,
and a century before that three boatloads might be progenitors in
three centuries of the existing French Canadian population.
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James Bonwick— On t/ie Origin of the Tasmaniaris. 121
Ordinary Meeting^ Jan. 25th, 1870.
Professor Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair.
New Members. — Lord Rosehill; J. W. Barnes, Esq. ; Wal-
ter Morrison, Esq., M.P. ; and Robert Lucas Nash, Esq.
Dr. Hooker, C.B., exhibited a collection of figures in unburnt
clay modelled by a native Zulu, and sent to this country by
J. Sanderson, Esq.
Col. Lane Fox exhibited two stone mullers, one from Tahiti,
and the other from the West Indies, together with a drawing of
a similar muller from New York.
The following paper was then read by the author : —
Xni. On the Origin of the Tasmanians Geologically consi-
dered. By James Bonwick, Esq., P.R.G.S.
(Abridged.)
The *' Origin of the Tasmanians '' has at this moment a painful
interest. The last man of the race has departed : an old woman
is the sole survivor of the island tribes.
The people were recognized as among the lowest of the human
form, and the most isolated and peculiar of the family of man.
Black and woolly-haired, they seemed allied to Africans seven
thousand miles away, while their manners and general physique
connected them with their Australian neighbours. How came
they where the early voyagers found them ?
Linguistic analogies, identity of customs, and assimilation of
habits of thought associate them with others scattered over vast
areas ; but grave difficulties beset our way in seeking a common
origin for races so remotely situated from each other, and almost
aU of whom may be reputed consistent landsmen.
In pleading, therefore, as I shall have to do, for the prior
existence of a continent with which these several peoples could
have been associated, I am conscious of placing myself in anta-
gonism to popular and established theories, and of confronting
those who would make the Aborigines literally " Men of the
Soil,'' — beginning an existence as a race in the country where
they are now observed.
Assuming sufficient time, it may be demonstrated that the
Papuan race, which we see at so many isolated spots, were for-
merly more associated geographically, and that they could have
had one common ancestry. Prof. Huxley sees reason to connect
the Tasmanian and his neighbours with the very old prehistoric
folk of Europe. *' I shall be inclined,'' says he, " to look among
the Papuan races of New Guinea and New Holland for the
nearest allies of men to whoi|^ the Shell-Mounds once belonged."
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122 James Bokwick — On the Origin of the Tasmanians,
The migratioa took place at a period when civilizatioii had
made little advance; and not only prior to the institution of
agriculture, but before the domestication of cattle.
It is in the highest degree probable that the site of the sunken
continent whence the various black races surrounding the
Indian Ocean, and extending into the Pacific and Southern
Oceans, may have radiated was the source of the Australian
vegetation. Dr. Hooker, in his valuable work on the Flora of
the South, has afibrded us some remarkable data for this con-
ception. He indirectly supports the continental theory by
showing how very inadequate the powers of currents of air and
water are as propagators of species. In accounting for the
absence of certain forms in New Zealand, after that region was
isolated from New Holland, he demonstrates that it '^is still
more incompatible with the theory of extensive migrations by
oceanic or aerial currents. This absence is most conspicuous in
the cases of Eucalypti and almost every other genus of Myr^
tacea, of the whole immense genus of Acacia, and of its nume-
rous Australian congeners.^^ The Blackfellows could no more
cross the sea than could the gum-tree.
But he proceeds to the origin of that flora. He found 273
genera of North Australia allied to those of India ; and that, as
the proportion of peculiarity increased while going south-east-
wards, the maximum of home plants was obtained in the south-
western part of Australia. He sees " a greater specific differ-
ence between two quarters of Australia, south-east and south-
west, than between Australia and the rest of the globe j and that
the most marked characteristics of the flora are concentrated at
that point most remote from any other region of the globe.''
But that quarter would be the one nearest the sunken conti-
nent; to which, therefore, we trace the flora of Australia.
Dr. Hooker is led also to the old continent by the thought
that " the many bonds of aflSnity between the three Southern
Floras (the Antarctic, Australian, and South African) indicate
that these have had a common origin, that the period of their
divergence antedates the creation oi the principal existing gene-
ric forms of each.''
The extension of the country of the Blackfellows was neces-
sary to account for its vegetation, as the same botanical autho-
rity is convinced that facts prove " not only the antiquity of the
flora, but that it was developed in a much larger area than it
now occupies 'y " and he elsewhere says, *' the antecedents of the
peculiar Australian flora may have inhabited an area to the
westward of the present Australian continent, and that the
curious analogies which the latter presents with the South-
African flora, and which are so much more conspicuous in the
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Jambs Bonwick — On the Griffin of the Tasmanians, 128
south-west quarter, may be connected with such a prior state of
things/'
Dr. Hooker declares that one-eighth of the plants of South
America may be found in New Zealand, while the Polynesian
flora generally has much sympathy with that continent. One-
tenth of the New-Zealand vegetation is common to Australia
and South America. The Oxalis Magelianica is found in New
Zealand, Tasmania, and South America, while the Edwardsia
grandijlora is detected in the first and third of these regions ;
and yet the President of the Linnsean Society has affirmed that
" the seeds of neither could stand exposure to the salt-water, and
they are too heavy to be borne on the air" Mr. Andrew Mur-
ray says '^ South America was most probably united to Australia,
if we may draw any inference from the presence of allied forms
of life common to both.''
The botany of South Africa is much like that of Australia, there
being, according to Dr. Hooker, 280 genera of 1000, or nearly
thirty per cent., identical. The wonderful egg of Madagascar,
14 inches long, proves that the land must have extended far be«
yond the present narrow limits when the parent of such an egg
existed, and that most probably toward the east and north end,
as Mr. Wallace believes Madagascar has not been connected
with the African mainland since the Miocene period, at least.
Mr. Wake gives especial prominence to the island in his theory
of continental extension.
We may, then, conclude with Mr. Murray that " a complete
circlet of land formerly crowned the southern temperate regions,
as now does the northern."
Mr. Pritchard admits that " an archipelago was originally
formed by the disruption of an ancient continent through the
invasion of the equatorial current." D'Urville wrote of that
old continent. The learned Mr. Logan, of Singapore, has these
remarks : — " Asia cannot be severed, in a physicfd or geological
view, fipom the great infeular region which lies to the southward
of it." He has shown the continuity of geological formations
from Malaya across the Strait to Singapore, and onward to
ialands southward and eastward. Mr. Oxley finds the four
great families of Casuarina, Myrtacea, Melaleucea, and Pro-
teacea represented in India. The Australian flora, according
to Dr. Hooker, terminates with the Casuarina on the eastern
side of the Bay of Bengal, and the StyUdium on the western.
''In many cases," writes Sir J. E. Tennant, "the faunas of
Ceylon and of Australasia seem more similar than those of Cey-
lon and Hindustan." But Mr. Murray adds, ''Both their
faunas and floras have to a considerable extent an Australian
character." The traditions of Ceylon point to a time when the
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124 James Bonwick — On the Origin of the Tasmanians,
country extended far southward. The Arabs still speak of the
Gate of Tears^ which opened to let in the floods that tore their
land from Africa. The South-Australian blacks even now point
to the West as the source of Babydom. Prof. Owen thinks that
" the Andaman Islands^ like the Nicobar, Java^ Sumatra^ and
('eylon, may have been parts of some former tract of dry land
distinct from^ and perhaps preexistent to, that neighbouring
and more northern continent." Prof. Huxley considers that
the Australioid and Negroid, of his ethnological nomenclature,
were in existence when there was land communication between
Australia and the Deccan on the one hand, and South Africa,
Malacca, and New Guinea on the other.
New Guinea has so many similarities with its greater neigh-
bour that we seem ready to regard the two in the likeness of
Dover and Calais, and with New Guinea may be brought into con-
nexion with Australia, the Melanesian group of New Hebrides,
Solomon Isles, New Britain, New Ireland, New Caledonia,
&c. Marsupialia still exist in the New Hebrides. The Rev.
John Inglis, Presbyterian Missionary, is disposed to con-
nect some of those with New Zealand, though regarding New-
Caledonian botany as kindred to that of New South Wales. Dr.
Hooker, however, classes the plants of New Hebrides and New
Caledonia with those of New Zealand and New Holland. Dr.
Sdater classes the birds of Polynesia with those of Australia.
Mr. Murray sees that the only mammals of Polynesia " belong
to an order also found in Australia, the Bats ; " he observes
great affinity of genera in birds of Australia and Papua, and Dr.
Giinther noticed the same with reptiles and batrachians.
The geological history of New Zealand has some strong con-
nexion with that of New Holland. For example, the Coid-field
of Eastern Australia, one of the largest in the world, seems one
with that of New Zealand on the western side ; whilst the gold-
fields of New Zealand are similar to those of Australia.
The existence of huge birds, like the Dinorms or Moa, is not
at all in accordance with the theory of an insular history. New
Zealand must, in all probability, have been then much greater
in extent. Although the Emu now strides over the pkins of
Australia, and is of kindred family to the wingless birds so com-
paratively recently roaming over the fern-land, yet the latter
country may have stretched far eastward and northward, as well
as westward.
A most important additional evidence has been brought by a
recent mail from Australia. We learn that the diggers of the
Peak Downs Gold-field, Queensland, found what is pronounced
by Mr. Gerard Krefft, the Curator of the Sydney Museum, to
be the right femur of a monster bird, allied to the Moa !
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Jambs Bonwick — On the Origin qf the Ta^manians. 125
It may properly be asked, Why seek to prove the connexion
of New Zealand with the Australian shores, when no correspon-
dence of human race is known ? The Blacks of New Guinea
and Australia are similar ; but the inhabitants of New Zealand
are Poljmesian, not Papuan.
The Maori confesses himself a stranger, an immigrant; he
has traditions of the canoes that brought his forefathers to the
foreign coast. But in those very tales are stray references to
the aboriginal inhabitants, most of whom the savage visitors were
said to have devoured. Five hundred years only are assumed
by the one great authority, the able and benevolent friend of the
coloured races. Sir George Grey, as the limit of the residence of
the Maories. Who were there before them ? Several travellers
have spoken of the presence of two distinct races ; in spite of in-
termarriage, the dark skin> crisp hair, thick lip of the one would
indicate a Papuan character.
The islands to the south and east of New Zealand present
some interesting features that help out the theory. It is suf-
ficient now to allude to the Chatham Isles of the east ; here the
volcanic element comes out in strong force, and furnishes us,
doubtless, with a key to the enigma of the present isolation of
the place. But the ethnological remains are more convincing
than in the parent island : Broughton and Dieffenbach are clear
in their testimony that the inhabitants were dark, with crisp
hair, and with aU the other peculiarities of a people wholly di-
stinct from the Maories.
There needs no argument to affirm the former connexion of
Tasmania with South-eastern Australia; the granite of the for-
mer is led to the granite of the latter by a succession of ocean
granite-steps, — the isles of Bass's Strait. Raised beaches in the
Straits show other changes. Wilson's Promontory has a flora
peculiarly Tasmanian. Even the distinctive Devil (the Dasyurus)
has been discovered, with other remains of extinct Australian life,
in a cave of Mount Macedon, in Victoria ; while both Devil and
Tiger {Thylacinus) have been seen among the osseous curiosities
of Wellington Cave, New South Wales, along with monster
Kangaroos and huge marsupial oxen. Its Omithorhynchus is
seen in South-eastern Australia. By its isolation it retained
some original inhabitants a little longer than the continent did.
In proceeding to the specific object of the paper, the tracing
of the progress of the tribes geologically, I must assume the
now generally accepted belief of the allied character, at least,
of the dark race of the Indian hills, of Malaya, of Cochin China,
of the Andaman, and of the Papuan Isles proper, with the Abo-
rigines of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. But, as it is
well known that the natives of those two last-named countries
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
126 James Bonwick — On the Origin of the Tasmanians.
have peculiarities^ especiaUy of hair^ distinguishing them from
one another^ I would endeavour to indicate the probable path-
way of the woolly-haired Tasmanians in contradistinction to that
of the kindred^ but more flowing-haired^ men of the continent.
Mr. Logan, who had so many opportunities at Singapore of
noticing a variety of races, teaches this respecting the two in
question : — " The spiral-haired Papuans of South New Guinea
and Torres Strait are often more Africo-Semitic and South
Indian in their physiognomy than the Australians, while the
latter have the fine hair of the South-Indian and some Mid-
African nations, and a linguistic formation which resembles the
South Indian more than any other in the world/'
To raise the sunken continent, so as to connect the woolly-
haired men of the Southern Isle with the crisp-haired Hill-men of
India and Malaya, the Veddas of Ceylon, the corkscrew-ringlet
men of New Guinea, the Blacks of New Caledonia, and the Va-
zimbas of Madagascar, we may be obliged to go back through
the Pleistocene to the Tertiary, and even advance considerably
into the latter. But it should be borne in mind that geologists
place the Australian flora with the Oolitic age of Europe ; and
Mr. Huxley has prepared us for enlarged conceptions of anthro-
pology by asking, " Was the oldest Homo sapiens Pliocene or
Miocene, or yet more ancient ? " At any rate, if unprovided
with this extent of time, we see no other way of deliverance
from the dilemma than that of the polygenestic theory of sepa-
rate creations of distinct species of man at various epochs. No
sea-migration idea, no climatic change, no intermarriages can
account for White and Black, for English and Tasmanians, dur-
ing the limited space of six, or even twenty, thousand years.
The so-called Oriental Negroes, having the crisp and woolly
hair, though found in New Guinea on the north and Tasmania
on the south, have left some representatives on the mainland of
Australia. Cape York, with the Murray Islands, show this pecu-
liarity. Mr. Earl has this striking report of Coburg peninsula,
to the north-west, — " The aboriginal inhabitants of this part of
Australia very closely resemble the Papuans of New Guinea, or,
which is almost the same thing, the aborignes of Van Diemen's
Land.'' Mr. Oldfield, the naturalist, has something similar to
relate of a part of Western Australia. '' The tribes," says he,
" inhabiting the country from Murchison River to Sharks' Bay
possess more of the characteristics of the Negro family than the
aborigines of any part of Australia."
Although the Tasmanians can be shown to be, excepting in
their hair, so much like their continental neighbours, — sdthough
they live in the same manner, have similar customs, and cherish
the same superstitions, — yet they evidently form two distinct
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James Bonwick — On the Origin of the Tasmamans. 127
streams of population. The interesting question to arrive at is^
whether the former took the same track as the New Hollanders^
and whether they were first or last on the field of their present
locality.
The Australians^ as a rule^ are physically different from the
Tasmanians; but the fact of some being found with^ at leasts
Tasmanian tendencies^ and these at three comers of the conti-
nent furthest removed firom Van Diemen's Land^ may throw
some light upon the former distribution of the people. They
would thus appear to have come somewhat upon each other's
track at one period. Had they approached^ it would have been
without doubt to come into collision. In two places where the
curly-haired people remain on the mainland^ they are in compa-
ratively inaccessible retreats^ and in not too favourable a country,
thus furnishing as little opportunity as temptation for the Austra-
lians proper to dislodge them. It is just possible that the crisp-
haired race had been thrust outward on all sides by those who
possessed the rivers and the interior, as we find them all round
the Australian continent.
Mr. Logan is of opinion, chiefly on linguistic grounds, that
the Australian was a prior migration. I should feel disposed to
think it more probable that the Tasmanian and his kindred were
first, from their being discovered over a larger area, and at so
many distant, isolated spots. The New Hollander finds his allies
in India; but the Tasmanian has his in Africa, Ceylon, India,
Malaya, the Indian archipelago, and far onward in the Pacific.
When a comparison is made between the two, it is usually to the
advantage of the former, in point of civilization, as though he
had been more recently disconnected from the parent, or less
separated from his fellow tribes, than the other.
Australia is admitted by naturalists to be one, at least, of the
most ancient parts of the world. As its fossil mammalia have
been found identical in family with the present forms, and these
latter are pronounced to be more ancient than others, it may
reasonably be assumed that the land is of a greater relative an-
tiquity, and especially possesses the least changed developments
of life.
Again, if, as can be proved by references to both flora and
fauna. Northern Australia has no unknown types of life, it must
be more recent than other parts of the New-Holland continent.
As South Australia, according to Dr. Hooker, has such deficiency
of peculiar plants, and, as asserted by Mr. Murray, has only
four peculiar species of mammals out of twenty-eight, it would
surely be inferior in geological age to South-western Australia,
where the specific ones are as 28 to 39. Pursuing the argument,
Tasmania with part of Victoria and New South Wales would
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
128 James Bonwick — On the Origin of the Tastnanians.
rank high in term of years, as the land holds 41 peculiar species
out of 60. Of Tasmania alone, twelve species of its twenty mar-
supials are peculiar to itself.
Geology substantiates the position of the naturalists. The
main chains of South-eastern Australia, with Tasmania, have
reared their bold fronts from very early times, forming, with the
angle of South-western Australia, the original islands of the
Australian seas.
Following the guidance of such observations, there seems no
occasion to halt in our supposition that the inhabitants of the
older portion, Tasmania, were older than those of most, if not
all, of Australia.
At the time of the existence of the former continent south-
ward of India, tribes would pass onward and outward. In all
probability the Hottentots of Africa and the woolly-haired
Papuans were the first to retire, 'followed soon by the Eastern
Africans ; for Mr. Huxley has pronounced the similarity of the
three. The Hill-men of India &c., preserving so much of the
mental characteristics of the Tasmanians, may have then passed
into their present homes. The New Hollander, who is conjec-
tured to have more of the South-Indian development than the
Tasmanian, may have proceeded later from the northern side of
the old continent, through or near the country then inhabited
by the Dravidians, and so have subsequently passed overland
into New Holland on the western side. As, probably, a broad
sea separated Eastern from Western Australia, their possession
of the whole land was a work of time.
The curly-headed Papuans, with their strange African type,
had a wider range, as I have said, being now found east, west,
and north of the site of their supposed original seat. As the
more ancient, they would have had a longer time to ramble.
They are not found in Borneo and Java, as the flora and fauna
of those islands indicate a more Indian character, and that of
a more recent period than the time of the great dispersion.
From their presence in Papua proper, round to New Caledonia,
and most probably in New Zealand, the subsidence of the South-
western Pacific land took place subsequently to their arrival.
The New-Zealand flora may date after that period. They were
in Tasmania when that country had connexion both with New
Zealand on the one hand, and with the southern prolongation
of Western Australia on the other.
As the Rev. E. Woods assumed that the Murray country of
South Australia and part of Victoria was formed in warm, deep,
and tranquil waters, the current, doubtless^ brought the material
from Northern Australia when partly a coralline sea. This would
make the land between Tasmania and Western Australia in early
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James Bonwick— On the Origin of the Tasmanians. 129
days run southerly, so as to leave space for the deep South-
Australian Bay. Tasmania, being then part of Eastern Austra-
lia, the natives may be presumed to have passed upwards along
the Cordillera there, as they had extended further eastward and
northward. It is true that, with the exception, as has been
stated, of some remnants of their blood at Melville Island, Cape
York, and Sharks^ Bay, no Papuan tribe of crisp curly hair
exists on the main continent. They had been extirpated by
the subsequent migration of Australians, who had less of the
African and more of the Mongolian characteristics. The dis-
connexion of New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Tasmania from
the mainland preserved in those three islands the int^rity of
the woolly-haired and aboriginal people, while the continent re-
tained its own homogeneous population.
May I be pardoned the indirigence of further speculation con-
cerning the lost continent, or continents, to the south ? Could
such possibly have been the birthplace of our race ?
It is somewhat singular that the most peculiar languages are
found with the Chinese, Hottentots, Australians, and Tasma-
nians ; these are all believed to be among the most ancient of
human tribes, and they are flung around the lost continent. When
Prof. Owen examined the curious Andamaners, he was unable
to class them with existing peoples, and was compelled to range
them as, " The repreeentativee of an old race belonging to a for-
mer continent that had almost disappeared" The Andamaners
are the same as the Negritos; and of the latter Mr. Murray
informs us, '' The Negritos of the Philippine Islands cannot he
separated from the other Papuan Blacks.^' The latter, therefore,
of New Ouinea, Australia, and Tasmania, may, as to origin, be-
long to the continent that has " almost cUsappeared.'^
Assuming, then, that these races belonged to that lost land, to
what other conclusions are we led? If the volcanic band, ex-
tending over so large an arc, from Arabia to the Philippines,
or to Melanesia, were the means of the gradual submergence
of the southern continent between Africa and Australia, and if
it were connected with those movements of India, which foot by
foot had elevated the Himalayas, declared by Owen to be " the
site of one of the latest of the greatest systems of upheaving
forces that resulted in the formation of new continents,^' the
submergence of that southern region must have commenced at
a period when most parts of Europe and Asia were under the
ocean, and its former human inhabitants must have existed be-
fore the primitive men of the caves of France, or the wild hun-
ters of Kent's Cavern. While man is known to have lived with
Mammoths, Rhinoceroses, and Cave Lions in Europe, these very
VOL. II. K
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
130 James Bonwick — On the Origin of the Tasmanians.
animals are acknowledged to be of a less ancient type than
those associated with the Tasmanians.
Why^ then^ should it be thought merely a wild conjecture to
contemplate the lost continent (the early home of the Anda-
man^ Hottentot^ and Australian races) as one of the earliest
scenes, if not actually the'first scene of man's existence here ?
Discussion.
Dr. HooKBB, C.B., made some remarks on the floras of the south-
ern hemisphere.
The President showed that the conditions which affect the distri-
bution of j)lants and of animals are not the same. If, for example,
an island were separated from the coast of Australia by only a few
miles of sea, that island might become covered with Australian
plants, while the arm of sea, although extremely narrow, would form
an effectual ban*ier to the passage of any terrestrial mammal But,
if the distribution of land-animals be compared with that of man, it
will be found that the argument tells in the other direction ; for man
is a being capable of using artificial means to effect his distribution.
It is well known that the fauna of Australia is closely akin to that
of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands. Thus the genus
Casuarius is found in Australia, the New Hebrides, New Guinea, and
as far westward as '^ Wallace's line.*' Facts such as these tend to
prove that New Guinea has recently been connected with Australia.
Turning to New Zealand, it is found that the fauna is extremely
different from that of Australia. In fact, New Zealand constitutes
a distinct province ; it has no emus, no cassowaries, and none of
those types of mammals which would certainly be found had land-
communication existed between New Zealand and Australia. The
barrier of sea between the two may have been extremely narrow,
but there could not have been absolute contact. A similar argument
might be applied to the islands north-west of Australia, and would
tend to show that no direct communication could have extended be-
tween Borneo, Sumatra, New Guinea, and Australia.
The type of the Australian man is entirely distinct from that of
the Tasmaniau. The speaker had seen the Australian at Cape York,
at Port Essington, on the south-east coast, and in Victoria. Every-
where the native presents similar characters, being distinguished
especially by his dark skin, heavy brow, and smooth hair, never crisp
or woolly. It is true that a Negrito type may be found at Cape
York and in the adjacent islands in Torres Strait ; but this is evi-
dently due to a Papuan race which, having come to Australia from
New Guinea, has brought its civilization, and introduced the use of
the bow and arrow and the construction of canoes.
Although the speaker had not had an opportunity of seeing the
Tasmanians, there is evidence that they are extremely like the peo-
ple of New Caledonia ; and these resemble the inhabitants of the
iiouisiaile Islands, whom he had often seen, and who are extremely
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H. H. HowoRTH — On a Froniier-line of Ethnology. 131
different from the AusfcraliaDS. The Tasmanian had no throwing-
Btick, and neither in language nor in appearance did he resemble the
Australian.
It seemed, therefore, physically impossible that the Tasmanian
could have come from Australia, and apparently the only way of
accounting for the presence of the Tasmanian was to assume his
migration from New Galedouia and the neighbouring islands. It
would appear that at one time a low negrito type spread eastwards,
and reached Tasmania not by means of direct and uninterrupted
land-communication between New Caledonia and Tasmania, but ra-
ther by means of broken land in the form of a chain of islands now
submerged, similar to that which at present extends between New
Caledonia and New Gruinea.
The following paper was then read by the Hon. Secretary : —
XIV. On a Frontier-line of Ethnology and Geology.
By H. H. HowoRTH, Esq.
Buckle reduced many problems of history to questions de-
pending on fixed laws. Fanciful and crotchetty sometimes no
doubt^ we cannot but follow him with approval in many of hia
speculations. He first taught as a system that man is the
creature of the physical surroundings in which he finds himself^
that his life is only the subject of choice within very narrow
limits^ and that even these limits depend a good deal on his
culture^ and while very appreciable in a philosopher^ are
almost absent in the savage. If we confine this remark to one
subject only^ namely^ the migrations of different races, we shall
not be slow to accept it.
A very superficial survey of ethnology is sufficient to satisfy
any inquirer that its grand divisions coincide remarkably with
the great zoological and botanical provinces. I am^ of cotirse^
excluding at present the vast colonizations of different parts of
the earth which have taken place since the 16th century. Neg*
lecting these^ we find Australia (that remnant of one of the
most ancient land-horizons in geology^ with a fauna and flora
of a very primitive type) occupied by the humblest and most
degraded type of man. The forests and hills of India^ and
parts of South Africa^ which form another province, are in-
habited by a black race which connects the Australian with the
purer negro. Central and South America, including Mexico,
nave another type, as they form another province; China and
Indo-China another; Southern Asia and the Mediterranean
border-land another; Northern Europe, Siberia, and North
America yet another. I now wish to call attention to the
Digitized by Vjt)OQlC
132 H. H. HowoRTH — On a Frontier-line
effects of tlie invasion of one ethnological province by a race
belonging to another — ^perhaps^ rather, the coincident and ac-
companying circumstances than the effects. The readiest ma-
terials at our command for the purpose are famished by the
wide- spread migration, in recent times, of that race collectively
known as Indo-European or Iranian. It is a trite and undeni-
able fact that this migration has been accompanied by a very
great change in the fauna and flora of the country to which it
has tended, A portion of the ancient fauna and flora haa been
driven out or extinguished, and a portion of the rest is fighting
a losing battle. The victors are the invaders, — a new fauna
and a new flora, brought with them by the invading race, and
apparently as superior in vigour to the ancient fauna and flora
as the new race of men is to the old. It is not sufficiently con-
sidered that such changes may not be the effects of man's mi-
gration at all, save in that he is the immediate instrument of
their being brought about, but that they are the results of an
invariable law to which man is as subject as the lower animals,
and which has held good in all geologic time, namely, that the
fauna and flora, including the higher and the humbler classes,
change together. The fact is no less true of other races than
the Indo-European. Indeed I hold it to be a general law,
that where the man of one ethnological province bodily invades
and drives out the former inhabitants, he is merely the fore-
runner of a great change in the fauna and flora of the new
country, — such a change as in geology would mark the advent
of a new period ; and that, in fact, such a new period in geo-
logy is being at this moment inaugurated in every country
where the Indo-European race is occupying the soil ; and fur-
ther (but I am rather forestalling), that this new life-period is
coincident with new climatic and other conditions, not the mere
handiwork of man, but the necessary unfolding of a fresh leaf
in the history of the world, of which the creatures more im-
mediately dependent on man, and the plants and animals more
necessary to his existence and pleasure, are to form the palseon-
tological differentliB, I wish to apply this reasoning, which, so
far as I know, is new, to a more limited area of inquiry.
Siberia and North America form perhaps one of the best de-
fined provinces we have, zoologically and botanically. In these
respects it coincides ahnost exactly with the fauna and flora
of the prehistoric period*. The Megaceros hardly differs from
the Moose, or the Felis spebea from the Mandchurian Tiger;
and the rest of the animals are equally related. It is, in fact,
♦ T use the word " prehistoric" us Mr. Boyd Dawldns uses it, to repre-
sent the period intervening between the pleistocene deposits and the purely
historical ones.
Digitized by
Google
of Ethnology and Geology, 133
the yearly diminisliing but still vast remnant of the world of
yesterday, or rather of our world of yesterday. In climate and
conditions and products we may there study that world just as it
was with us. The boundary line of this province on the south
follows, as is natural enough, an isothermal line, which girdles
the northern hemisphere along the same parallel of latitude,
except at one point. It is weU known that the isothermals of
Western Europe have a very abnormal course. Twisted from
the horizontal direction they maintain across the Atlantic, they
turn gradually as they approach Europe, and on the coast of
Norway pass almost due north, and enclosing a finger-like projel^-
tion, they return again as rapidly through Central Russia. If
we ignore the European emigrants to America, and the as
recent Russian emigrants to Siberia, and fix upon the beginning
of the 16th century when neither of these events had occurred,
we shall be startled to find what a decided boundary line this
isothermal is in ethnology, as well . as in zoology and botany
even, after the generalization we commenced with. North of it
we find races whose physical resemblance is unmistakable, —
Ugnans, Samoiedes, Gilyaks, Kamskatki, and North-American
Indians. In America the ethnological boundary is not so well
defined, perhaps, more because we have not yet discriminated,
as we shall do some time, the various divisions of the American
tribes, than because of the want of a real frontier. In Asia
and Europe the case is different.
In Asia the great succession of deserts that extend from the
Caspian to the Khingan mountains are inhabited by mixed
races whose history points a curious moral. They are all di-
stinct from the races north of these deserts, and their history I
have epitomized in a series of j)apers I am writing for this
Society. In Europe the contrast is still greater.
South of the great frontier line are the races whose fame is
wide spread, under the name of Indo-Europeans, — ^races stretch-
ing from the Hindu- Kush to the Atlantic, and forming a power-
ful ingredient in the blood of the Hindoos. Most of the in-
tervening races who inhabit the Asiatic deserts are compounded
of these Iranians, the Chinese, and the original occupants of
Siberia, whom one cannot call by a better name than Ugrians.
Our evidence goes to show that the Tungus, the Mongols, and
the Turks all originated in such a mixture, and that they chiefly
occupy ground once held by the same Ugrians, of whom relics
and wrecks are found in every comer of NorthemAsia. The
Ugrian race, then, is the race identified with those climatic and
other conditions which in geology constituted the prehistoric
period.
If we complete the isothermal line we have mentioned along
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
13 4« II. II. Ho WORTH — On a Frontier-line
its normal course, and make it traverse Europe at the same
latitude that it crosses Asia, we shall enclose between it and
the present isothermal the European area characterized by
remains of the prehistoric fauna. This enclosed area is also one
of infinite interest to the ethnologist. During the last 2000
years (a period well within the reach of close criticism) we
find that amidst the ceaseless and confusing emigrations that
have occurred in this area, there has been a constant move in
one direction at least, — a gradual encroachment by the Celtic,
Germanic, and Slavic races upon the humbler races on their
frontiers, and these latter invariably of the Ugrian family.
The Basques in Spain are now penned in a small corner of
their ancient patrimony in the time of the Romans. The Fins
and Laps have been pushed back in Scandinavia to a very
small portion of their ancient holding. In Livonia, in Esthonia,
and in three-fourths of European Russia the Ugrians were,
even in the. 11th century, the preponderating population.
Proofs are now accumulating that before the Christian era
this process of displacement was taking place even at a greater
rate, the area to be occupied having been much more fertile
and inviting. I have attempted to show, in a paper read before
the British Association, that a very great element in the Celtic
language is Ugrian, and I believe the same to be true of the Latin
and Greek. The German- speaking race can, I believe, be shown
to have occupied Central Europe since the 3rd century B.C., the
Celts and the Slaves to have arrived since the 9th, and the
Indo-European element of Italy and Greece since the 10th or
11th. If this be so, then we get a very recent date compara-
tively for the period when the Basques in Spain and the Fins
in Sweden, now mere wrecks and waifs of the original popula-
tion, were close neighbours ; and one homogeneous people occu-
pied, if not a ring round the world, at least one reaching from
Britain to Kamskatka, when Europe was overrun by fishermen
and hunters, such as we find in Siberia, where we ought to go if
we are to study the religion^ the manners, and government of
the so-called stone-folk. If the result of our ethnological in-
quiry be to discover so recent an occupation of Western and Cen-
tral Europe by the Ugrian races, what about the palseontological
and botaniccd evidence? During the last 2000 years huge
forests have disappeared firom IiYance, Germany, and Britain,
and have been replaced by cultivated land in some instances, in
others by bogs and heath. At a not remotely earlier day, Den-
mark and Prussia and Ireland were similarly covered. The
gradual extinction of the bear, the wolf, the beaver, the elk, the
reindeer, and the urus in Western Europe can all be dated in
various areas. We hear of the reindeer, the urus, and the elk
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
of Ethnology and Geology. 135
in Gennany in the days of Csesar, and the reindeer is mentioned
in Caithness by the Norse Saga writers. The urns survives in
Lithuania^ and has only disappeared from Transylvania within a
century. Eastern Grcrmany still has in its forests some of the
ancient animals^ and, as we approach the Siberian area, they
increase in numbers: their course of extinction has followed
lliat of the Ugrian races. As we have the Basques still remain-
ing in Spain, so do we find a few bears and wolves, and a lynx
or two in the Pyrensean mountains and the larger forests of the
peninsula. Man more readily and quickly occupies a new area,
the animals take a longer time to replace one another, and the
plants a longer time still -, but the story is equally true of all
three classes. This change in the fauna and flora of a countiy
is preceded by a change in climatic and other conditions. We
cannot read the accounts given by the ancients of Thrace, of
the northern shores of the Euxine, of the Hercynian forest,
and of Gaul, without seeing at once what a rigorous climate
there was in those areas formerly as compared with that climate
now-a-days. Among the remains of the stone-folk found in
Switzerland are bunches of reindeer moss, which will grow
only in a very severe climate. To my mind, the disappearance
of the reindeer was caused chiefly by the disappearance of this
its food, just as the elk was extinguished in Ireland when the
forests in which it is alone at home were demolished. The
whole evidence goes to show that the isothermal lines in Europe
have been gradually twisted further to the north. We have
been told that this is due to the forests having been cut down,
and to other minor influences of man's occupation; but
this is a ridiculously inadequate cause ; nor would it account for
the facts in Norway, where the ancient forests remain, nor for
Switzerland, where the same holds good. There is only one
adequate cause, — ^a cause which has been a good deal pooh-
poohed of late years, namely, the Gidf-stream^ or some body of
equatorial water drifting northward. We have been told that
no such stream exists beyond the mid- Atlantic, and that it there
is gradually absorbed and dies away; but the existence and
influence of the stream has, to my mind, been triumphantly
established in the communication made by Admiral Isbister to
Sir R. I. Murchison, Bart., and even better by the dredging-
expeditions of Dr. Carpenter. The presence of West-Indian
fruits on the coasts of Iceland and the open fiords of Norway in
winter can have no other explanation ; nor the belt of warm sea-
bottom, so clearly distinguished by its faima from the surround-
ing cold waters in the North Atlantic. I have not the
slightest doubt that the flexion of the European isothermal is
caused mainly by the presence of this stream. If this be so.
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136 H. H. HowoRTH — On a Frontier-line of Ethnology.
then the reasoning I have endeavoured to lay before yoa
in this paper would tend to prove that the gradual advent
of such a stream may be traced from no earlier period than
about the 12th century b.c, when the Ugnan race and its
associated animals and plants began to give way to the Indo-
Europeans, and when the isothermals of Europe began to be
twisted towards the north; and we thus get an approximate
date for one revolution in geology which is susceptible of being
more accurately gauged as our evidence increases.
That the Gulf-stream is a very new influence it is not diffi-
cult to believe. Apparently^ after it reaches the banks of New-
foundland, it follows the line of least resistance, that is, of the
deepest water; for we must never forget that the Gulf-stream is
an actual river of warm water padded round on every side by
cold. This line of least resistance, which it follows on its way
to the Pole, makes it skirt the Bahama banks on the northj
and come almost due west to the Cape- Verde islands. Now
these Cape- Verde islands, in common with the Canaries and
other Atlantic islands, are subject to constant earthquakes ; the
sea-bottom is never long quiescent, but constantly altering its
level. If this be the case on the southern frontier of the Gulf-
stream, we can well believe, from the evidence we have col-
lected about the coasts of France, Holland, and Britain, that the
bed of the North-west Atlantic is also constantly altering its
level. It has long been said that the ice-fringe of the Green-
laud coasts, and the pack in Baffin's Bay, is now much greater
than it used to be, nrlule the climate of Greenland itself is appa-
rently becoming more rigorous every year. It may be that in
all this we have evidence that the Gulf-stream formerly
made its way to the pole on the western rather than the eastern
side of the Atlantic, and left Greenland on its right hand rather
than its left, as it does at present. If the Gulf-stream be held
to be an inadequate cause, the same results would foUow from
the distortion of some other body of warm water from its
normal course towards the pole by the upheaval or sinking
of portions of the Atlantic sea-bed. Either one or the other
seems to me to be necessary to explain the facts. The advent of
this body of warm water has introduced two new sets of depo-
sits,— one subaqueous, that now being correlated by Dr. Car-
penter with the ancient chalk, and the other terrestrial.
In concluding this very disconnected paper, I cannot avoid
one somewhat romantic moral. If my reasoning be sustained, is
it not wondrous strange that the area where these latest geological
changes are in progress is also the area where man's culture is
most developed, and where the focus of the moral world also
exists ? Can it be that we have in this correlation an example
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G. M. Atkinson — On the Nicobar Islanders, 137
of a law of progress^ by which the moral empire of mankiud
moTes in unison with the spread of a geological and physical
wave of progress ?
Mr. 6. M. Atkinson exhibited a collection of grotesque
figures carved in teak-wood^ obtained by Captain Edge^ B.N.,
firom the Nicobar Islands in 1867; and read the following
notes: —
XV. Notes on the Nicobar Islanders.
By G. M. Atkinson^ Esq.*
In July 1859 Captain Mackenzie first visited these islands^ in
command of a barque called the ' Aallotar.' On the first day
of his visit about one hundred of the natives came off to the
ship in canoes. These were made from trees hollowed partly by
fire and partly by the axe ; they were firom 10 feet to 30 feet
in length, and contained on an average from 6 to 8 men each.
After the natives came on board, the pipe of peace was lighted
by the interpreter, and passed from mouth to mouth among the
chiefs, who washed it down with arrack. The goods for barter
were then exhibited — axes, iron pots, rice, calico, glass beads,
bangles, &c ; and the tariff was arranged, so mdny cocoa-nuts
for each article.
On the followii^ days it was judged prudent to allow only
twelve of the natives on board the ship at one time. Military
duty was kept up on board ; sentinels were* stationed on deck ;
armed men were posted on the tops ; guns were all loaded ; and
one of the cannon was discharged at sunset and at eight o'clock
in the morning, until urgently requested by the natives to stop
the practice on account of the fright which the noise caused to
the women and children.
The chiefs were known as Captain Jack, Captain Tom, &c.,
names assumed from previous intercourse with Europeans.
Although they had no perceptible mark of distinction, they
always regulated the barter. No women ever came to trade.
This was looked on as a cause of suspicion, as no dependence
was to be placed on their professions of friendship, but the
interpreter said that if the women came there would be no fear
of hostility.
Noncowry and Trincutte are the largest of the Nicobar
Islands ; they are very hilly, and probably volcanic. Captain
Mackenzie noticed blue slate-like rocks. They are densely
* From information given to me by Captain James Mackenzie.
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138 G. M. Atkinson — On the Nicobar Islanders.
covered with tropical vegetation^ even to the water s edge. The
rise and fall of tide is about six feet, and the soundings very
deep. The islands produce fine timber, mangroves, iron-bark,
cocoa-nut and betel-nut trees : the grass is in some places up-
wards of six feet in height. The crew cut down a poon tree, 26
inches in diameter at base, 70 feet long from root to the first
branch, and perhaps 90 feet in total length. The huts are built
like bee-hives, circular or octagonal, and elevated on poles about
10 feet high. Access to the huts is gained by a rung ladder, up
and down which the native dogs run with facility. This ladder
is drawn up on the approach of an enemy or suspicious-looking
folk, and the bottom of the huts have open spaces, through
which the spear may be used. The huts are all close to the
margin of the shore, and are shaded by cocoa-nut trees : they
are thatched with cocoa-nut or banana-leaves, and terminate
each in a little cone or ball. Their height inside is perhaps
about six feet.
The only apology for dress was a string or narrow ribbon-like
strip of red or blue cloth round the waist, passing between the
legs and tied in a knot behind, the ends hanging down to the
heels (Fl. XIV. fig. 1). The women, as seen through the glass
on shore, wore a little mat apron. On procuring any article of
clothing it was immediately put on : one strutted about, to the
great delight of the rest, in an old black hat. They would not,
however, receive in barter any article that was cracked or had a
hole in it.
Captain Mackenzie was invited to a feast by the chiefs. He
left the ship about eleven o'clock at night, and all the boat's
crew were fiilly armed. On landing they found that the feast
had commenced : men, women, and children were dancing and
singing to the music of a tum-tum, sometimes going round hand
in hand, then jumping up and down separately, but still pre*
serving a circle about 15 feet in diameter. There was nothing
within the circle. Several parties were thus engaged. Appa-
rently a pig had been killed, and sections of the flesh, fat, and
blood in circles had been cut off and placed round their necks
like a necklace. It was a most filthy spectacle. They drank
toddy (the juice of the cocoa-nut palm) out of cups made from
the shell of the cocoa-nut very nicely carved.
This dance-festival was held in the centre of the enclosure of
huts. Torches made from a resinous substance, the product of
some of the trees, were burning all round. These torches are
also used when spearing fish by night with rods, having a barbed
end of iron- wood. Even the children are exceedingly expert at
this description of fishing, and will pierce with unerring accu-
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G. M. Atkinson — On the Nicobar Islanders. 139
racy a fish quite indiscernible to a European. Captain
Mackenzie stopped about a quarter of an hour (a most anxious
time)^ and then respectfnUy retired.
Their weapon is a spear and paddle (PI. XIY . fig. 2), measur-
ing about five feet long, and made of iron-wood. It is always
carried in the right hand. While climbing up the ship's side^
it was passed through the girdle on the back.
The only evidence of religion observed was that outside the
encampment of huts were placed small sticks about five feet in
height, each cleft at the top into three parts, and containing in
the cleft the youngest and sweetest cocoa-nut (PI. XIV. fig. 3).
Under each nut was placed a spark of fire in a small reed-like
tube, and a little tobacco in the form of either a suspended cigar
or a pipe, and, it is thought, also a few grains of rice. This was
offered to appease an evil spirit. The interpreters spoke to the
natives in what was judged to be the Malay language.
While loading, information was received that a white woman
was captive on the island, and my friend made efforts to rescue
her. Before daybreak he went in with his crew fully armed.
They entered the hut which was pointed out as her prison, but
it was empty ; and a second time he went to the back of the
island, but had no better success. He thinks that information
of his movements was given by the rascally interpreters. While
pursuing the search on shore, two Calcutta-built copper-fastened
boats were found, carefully hidden under leaves. From certain
European chests, clothing, &c. it was evident that many ships
had been, captured and plundered. On the second voyage the
interpreter got into difficulties amongst the natives, was chased
to the boat, and had to swim for his Ufe, crying out to the officer
in charge to fire ; but as the natives did not attempt to follow,
the officer did not think it necessary. The supercargo, on
reaching the ship, immediately ordered the vessel to leave,
fearing that an attack would be made by the natives.
In consequence of their propensities for plunder, the authorities
at Singapore were compelled, in July 1867, to despatch an expe-
dition to the islands. The wooden figures which I had the plea-
sure of exhibiting to the meeting, and one of which is represented
in PI. XIV. figs. 4 & 5, were taken during this expedition by Cap-
tain Edge, R.N., Commander of H.M.S. ' Satellite.' The follow-
ing memorandum accompanied these figures : — '' Reports hav-
ing reached the authorities at Singapore that several vessels had
from time to time been attacked by the savages upon these
islands, and their crews barbarously murdered, it was determined
to despatch an expedition to that spot, and accordingly, in July
1867, H.M.S. 'Wasp,' Captain Bedingfield, R.N., and H.M.S.
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140 G. M. Atkinson — On the Nicobar Islanders.
* Satellite/ Captain Edge, R.N., proceeded thither. The savages
fled on the approach of the vessels of war; and upon landing at
Enonnga, one of the largest of the villages. Captain Edge dis-
covered these figures in their huts, and upon his return to
Singapore he gave them to Major M^^air, B.A., for presentation
to a museum/'
Figs. 4 and 5 (PL XIV.) represent the front and side view of
the most characteristic of the figures. The original is made of
teak-wood, and is 3 feet 4 inches high, and 14 inches broad. It
has short legs and long arms, and the back is armed with the
form of the shell of a tortoise for a shield. The eyes are formed
of pieces of pearl shell, and the pupils of some gummy substance.
The face and front of the hood are painted red, and the teeth
white, while a stripe of white surrounds the mouth. The dress is a
bundle of tropical grass worn round the neck. One arm is lost.
The imitative power of the natives is shown by the representation
of one of the Indian deities, an abomination made of teak, 8 feet
high : the sceptre and spear in the hands are wanting. They
have also made a figure of a lady in European dress, to them
very fascinating, and several most comical imitations of Euro-
peans, soldiers and sailors, with red jackets and round black
hats. Two pieces of board (one with a procession of natives
meeting Europeans, the other with a number of different fishes)
show the character of native art in another direction.
The natives, as shown by the photographs of the three cap-
tured, are of a very low type. Their stature is from 5 feet to
5 feet 6 inches.
Several of the figures and the photographs are now in the
Christy Collection of the British Museum, and the others have
been sent to the Science and Art Museum in Edinburgh.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIV.
Fig. 1. Form of dress worn by the male natives of the Nicobar Islands.
2. Implement used as both spear and paddle.
d. Cocoa-nut in deft stick, with fire below ; probably an emblem of
religion.
4. Fiffure in teak- wood, with ejes of mother-of-pearl, 8 feet 4 inches
nigh. Taken from the Nicobar Islands by Captain Edge, K.N.,
and now in the Christy Collection.
5. Side view of fig. 4.
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Journ. Xthno. Soc.Vol II. PI. JDV.
Digitized by V:iOOQ IC
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
W. Boyd Dawkins — On Flints from a Submerged Forest. 141
Ordinary Meeting^ Feb. 8th, 1870.
A. Campbell, Esq., M.D., Viee-JPresident, in the Chair,
New Members. — Sir Charles Wbntworth Dilke, Bart.,
M.P.; Rev. A. S. Farrar, D.D.; Morton Coates Fisher,
Esq.; Francis Kerridoe Munton, Esq., F.R.G.S.; and F.
Berbspord Wrioht, Esq.
The following paper was read by the author : —
XYI. On the Discovery of Flint and Chert under a Submerged
Forest in West Somerset. By W. Boyd Dawkins, Esq.,
M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S.
The submarine forest exposed between the tide-marks on the
coast of West Somerset has long been known. That portion of
it visible at Porlock was described in 1839 by Sir Henry de la
Beche *, and more recently by Mr. Godwin-Austen in an essay
read before the Geological Society in 1865. It was shown by
the latter to be rooted on '^ an angular detritus,'' and to be over-
laid by the following deposits : —
1. A blue freshwater-mud deposit, resulting, probably, from
the depression of the laud.
2. A surface of plant-growth {Iris).
3. A marine silt with Scrobicularia piperata.
4a. Shingle that forms a ridge which is at the present time
encroaching on the level water-meadows behind.
The physical changes manifested by the section he interprets
thus : — The accumulation of angular detritus, in which the trees
are rooted, belongs to subaerial conditions, which were in ope-
ration while the boulder-clay of the centre and north of Britain
was falling from the melting icebergs. '' It is a condition of
surface presenited everywhere by that portion (t. e. the west of
England and of Europe) which was not submerged during the
great subaqueous depression of the northern hemisphere. In
geological history it belongs to the subaerial phenomena of the
glacifd period, and represents the whole of the variable condi-
tions of that long interval of time.'' This was followed by the
epoch of the growth of the forest, and of th^ accumulation of
vegetable matter. The overlying blue clay (no. 1) marks the
time during which the trees were kiUed ; the surface of marsh-
growth (no. 2), covered with Iris, marks the epoch when the
trees fell ; the Scrobicularia'CleLj (no. 3) indicates a depression
below the sea-level ; and, lastly, the clay was elevated and the
shingle thrown up on its surface to form the barrier at high-
water mark.
• Geol. Report on Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
142 W. Boyd Dawkins — On the Discovery of Flint and
Mr. Godwin- Austen's valuable essay recalled to mind a worked
flint that I had found in the angular detritus in 1861. On its
reexamination I found that it had been chipped by the hand of
man. In the autumn of 1869^ the Rev. H. H. Winwood and
myself resolved to verify the discovery by a thorough examina-
tion of the forest-bed. On digging through the layer of undis-
turbed vegetable matter, we met with ample traces of man's
handiwork in flint and chert chippings, and in one very well-
formed flake which, apparently, had never been used. They
were imbedded in the upper ferruginous portion of the angular
detritus, and evidently had been dropped upon the surface-soil
of the period, and not transported by water. On searching the
shingle we found only one water- worn flint-pebble, which, pos-
sibly, may have been washed out of the angular detritus ; it is
therefore probable that the presence of flint and chert in that
neighbourhood is owing to their transport by man.
Encouraged by these results we resolved to explore the sub-
marine forest in the nearest bay to the east close to Minehead.
It there consists of oak, ash, alder, and hazel, which grow on a
blue clay, full of rootlets, that thickens considerably seawards.
The blue clay in its lower part is full of angular fragments of
Devonian rocks, which, as at Porlock, constitute a land-wash
and not a shingle. At the point between tides, where the an-
gular fragments began to appear, the flint chippings were found.
The exact spot where we dug was to the east of the little stream
that enters the sea between Minehead and Warren farm, and
close to a large stump that is generally exposed at one-third
tides, about 200 yards from the shore and 50 from aline of posts
for nets. Th6 splinters, which, as at Porlock, clearly had been
struck ofi* by the hand of man in the manufacture of some tool,
consisted of flint and chert, the latter of which was derived from
the greensand of Blackdown, on the borders of Wiltshire ; they
were imbedded in a ferruginous band as at Porlock, aaid occurred
as deep as one foot from the surface of the bed. We dug in
several other spots without flnding any other traces of man's
presence.
In both these localities it is clear that man had been living on
the old land-surface, and that the remains of his handiwork had
been dropped in the angular detritus which Mr. Godwin- Austen
believes to be glacial. If the latter were accumulated under
Bubaerial conditions, during the great depression of land in the
northern hemisphere, the traces of man contained in it must be
of a like antiquity. But I cannot admit that the premises
warrant any such conclusion. The angular detritus at Porlock
and Minehead may have been the result of the action of snow
and ice during hard winters at any time. The hills that over-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Chert under a Submerged Forest in West Somerset. 143
hang both those loculities are very precipitous, and therefore
the accumulation of angular detritus might naturally be expected
in the valleys. It is, indeed, the result of the natural disinte-
gration of the Devonian rocks, under temperate rather than
arctic conditions, and at the present day in that area constitutes
the surface-soil. It therefore by no means follows that man
lived on the land in the south of England during the glacial
submergence of the north ; but that some time during the accu-
mulation of the detritus, and before the deposit of the blue fresh-
water clay, he occupied the district, very possibly during the
time when the forest still overshadowed the valley now sub-
merged beneath the Bristol Channel, and certainly not later
than that remote period.
These fragments of submerged forest are mere scraps, spared
by the waves, of an ancient growth of oak, ash, and yew that is
found everywhere in the Somersetshire levels, underneath the
peat or alluvium. At Porlock Quay, on the west, it dips under
the freshwater and marine strata, that have been described, at
high-water mark, and is stripped of its superjacent deposits firom
the line of half-tide down to low water. Opposite the precipi-
tous headland of North Hill it has not yet been found. At
Minehead it reappears under the same conditions as at Porlock,
and thence it is represented in an easterly direction by several
patches, visible at extreme low water, as far as Stolford, where
the angular detritus rests on the Liassic reefs. Then it passes
under the alluvium of Stert Point, at the mouth of the river
Parret, to join the large forest that lies buried in the basins of
the Axe, the Tone, the Parret, and the Yeo. At Weston-super-
Mare it can be seen under the alluvium. Throughout this wide
area the trees have been utterly destroyed by the growth of
peat, or by the deposits of the floods, except at a few isolated
spots, which stand at a higher level than usual, in the great
flats extending between the Polden Hills and the Quantocks.
One of these oases, a little distance to the west of Middlezoy, is
termed the Oaks, because those trees form a marked contrast to
the prevailing elms and willows of the district. In the neigh-
bouring ditches that gradually cut into the peat and then into
silt, prostrate oak trees are very abundant. As we approach the
river Parret the silt gradually increases in thickness until, at
Borough Bridge, the forest is struck at a depth of 18 feet below
the present surface, or about the same distance below the line
of high-water mark in the river.
The destruction of the forest seems to have been brought
about by the stagnation of water consequent on the deposit of
silt in the rivers, by which their beds were raised until the sur-
rounding district became flooded; then the peat grew and
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
144 W. Boyd Dawkinb — On Flints from a Submerged Forest,
gradually changed the surface into a spongy morass, in which
the trees died, and, as the latter decayed, they were blown down,
the lines of their trunks pointing away from the prevalent winds.
But while this was going on, the rivers were depositing silt in
quantities greatest at the line where their currents impinged on
the slack water, and gradually reaching a minimum in passing
away from their courses ; and in this way the fertile alluvium
of the vales of Taunton, Bridgewater, Highbridge, and Wes-
ton-super-Mare was deposited, while around Shapwick the
peat comes up to the surface, and attains a depth of at least
16 feet.
The conditions, therefore, under which the forest at Porlock
Quay and Minehead was destroyed are not merely confined to
those isolated spots, but are constant over the whole of the
Somerset levels. If, then, we can approximately fix the date of
the destruction of the forest, we have a clue to the antiquity of
the traces of man found in the land-surface underneath. And
this we are able to do by the discoveries made by the late Mr.
Stradling at the bottom of the peat, in the great marsh that ex-
tends from Highbridge to Glastonbury. From time to time,
between the years 1^0 and 1851, he obtained sundry flints,
celts, and spear-heads of the neolithic type, a bronze celt, and
three paddles from the top of the subturbary marl. A lax^
canoe also, formed out of an immense oak, and known as
'' Squire Phippen's big ship," made its appearance in dry sea-
sons, and eventually was broken up for firewood by the cot-
tagers. It is clear, therefore, that at least as early as the neo-
lithic age the forest beneath the turbary had been destroyed, and
its area occupied by a lake and possibly also by peat. The
atest date, therefore, which we can assign to the traces of man
in the submerged land-surface at Porlock and Minehead is an
early stage in the neolithic period. Possibly, even like the re-
mains of Rhinoceros tichorhinus dug out of a similar deposit
underneath a forest that underlies Taunton Oaol, they may be
of Quaternary or Postglacial age.
I have brought this note before the Ethnological Society
because, so far as I know, no cases are on record of the occur-
rence of traces of man underneath any submarine forest on the
shores of Britain. They do not add to our knowledge of pri-
meval man, or extend his range frurther than we already know
into the past ; they merely prove that he dwelt in the district
probably before and possibly during the growth of the forest,
and before those physical changes began to be felt by which its
destruction and submergence were brought about, — changes of
great magnitude and probably of long duration.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Dr. Campbell — On Prehistoric Remains, 145
Discussion.
Dr. Nicholas said that Mr. Boyd Dawkins's interesting analysis
of this sea-coast section suggested several points of inquiry bearing
on the antiquity of man. One question was as to the time it might
take, under given conditions, to amass the several beds. The rapi-
dity of the growth of peat was scarcely subject to any rule of calcu-
lation ; but it was matter of observation that in one man's lifetime
considerable changes of the surface of marsh-lands, through accumu-
lation of flood-deposits and vegetation, often took place. Groves of
trees within a comparatively short time disappeared through too
great a saturation of the ground with wet, or other causes, and the
trunks of these were soon covered over with moss and peat, and by
the next generation might be discovered a foot or more under ground.
He himself knew a place on the sea-coast where, in twenty jears, the
shingle bar gathered by the waves had considerably grown in height,
and the litue valley to the interior had perceptibly, through the
causes alluded to, had its surface raised. The mere existence of these
accumulated layers, therefore, did not argue necessarily any very
great antiquity. But then they had to deal with another fact, viz.
the finding of those flint implements in these deposits ; and it was
necessary, in order to determine how long it took to accumulate the
strata from the point where the flints were found upwards, to have
fiome definite idea as to the period when the formation of such im-
plements ceased in this island. Were they sure that none such were
formed within historic times ? The same kind of weapons were known
to be still formed and used by savage or half-civilized nations ; and
it was just possible that such rude contrivances continued long in
use by the less cultured portions of even civilized communities long
after bronze and even iron instruments had been introduced.
Mr. BoTD Dawkiks said in reply, that implements of stone were
used in Britain gun-flints and '^ strike-a-li^hts " being put out of the
Question) far later than was generally believed. He had discovered
nakes both in the cinder-heaps of the Wealden Ironworks, and in a
Bomano-British Cemetery at Hardham, in Sussex. A club or axe
armed with stone was even used at the Battle of Senlac. A cargo
of stones to be used as missiles formed an important part of a Vi-
king's equipment.
The Assistant-Secretary then exhibited and described a
stone hammer-head found by Mr. R. Mouat in the ancient
workings of the copper-mine of Ruy Gomes, in the Province of
Alemtejo, Portugal. The specimen is now in the Museum of
Practical Geology.
The Chairman then read a Note introductory to a paper by
the Rev. R. J. Mapleton on the prehistoric remains in the
neighbourhood of the Crinan canal, Argyllshire.
He said that his attention was first directed to the occurrence
VOL. II. x> ,
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
146 Rev. R. J. Mapleton — On Prehistoric Remains
of these remains by Sir James Simpson^ of Edinburgh^ when on
board the ' lona' steamer last autumn, in going up Loch I^ne.
The tract of country in which they are found is peculiar; it is
situated between Loch Fyne and Loch Crinan on the one hand,
and between the former and the head of Loch Awe on the other.
Loch Crinan and Loch Fyne, both salt-water lochs or inlets of
the sea, are united by the Crinan canal, which is nine miles long,
and by which navigation is carried on to the west coast of
Argyllshire. The country between the two lochs is very level
and productive, and although it is not thickly peopled in the
present day, it may have maintained a heavier population in
olden times. The tract lying between Lochs Fyne and Ford at
the head of Loch Awe, which is a freshwater loch 30 miles
long, and is estimated to cover 52,000 acres, is also compara-
tively rich and productive. It is in the vicinity of Kilmartin
in this tract that the greatest number of upright stones with
carvings are met with.
The Rev. Mr. Mapleton, of Duntroon, having been indicated
as the best authority on the antiquities of this district. Dr.
Campbell had applied to him for a paper on this subject, and he
had kindly forwarded the following communication.
The following paper was then read : —
XYII. Report on Prehistoric Remains in the Neighbourhood
of the Crinan Canal, Argyllshire. By the Rev. R. J.
Mapleton.
In attempting to give some account of the remains of the
ancient inhabitants of this district, I think that perhaps it will be
the better plan to divide the subject into various heads, so as
to be able more readily to mark any differences that may
occur. I shall therefore offer some remarks upon — I. Petro-
glyphs ; 2. Menhirs ; 3. Cairns and other sepulchral remains ;
and 4. Residences.
1. Petroglyphs. — ^There are four distinct groups of these still
existing in the glen that extends from Lochgilphead to the
village of Kilmartin, — ^two on each side of the glen. I may men-
tion that it is the opinion of good geologists that Loch Awe
at one time emptied itself at this south end, instead of at the
north end, as at present. There are evident signs that, at one
time, a strong and rapid river ran through the glen : thus the
glen would have been of more importance then than now. The
chief peculiarity in these specimens is that the markings are all
circular, none are square. A fifth group was accidentally de-
stroyed a few years ago in making a road, and I have heard of
a sixth, which I have been unable to find, as it is overgrown
Digitized by VjOOQIC
in the Neighbourhood of the Crinan Canal, Argyllshire. 147
with grass 'and moss. Thus six distinct groups at least have
existed in this neighbourhood^ three on each side of the glen ;
they are all situated upon the ice- worn crowns of rock, and
engraven upon the solid stone. No remains of camps have as
yet been ascertained, but the glen is one mass of sepulchral
remains. These petroglyphs therefore would seem to be con-
nected with burials or religion rather than with war, especially
as several of the menhirs are sculptured with " pits'' or " cups,''
some of which are surrounded by the circle, exactly similar to a
marking that I saw upon a stone among the Carthaginian re-
mains in the British Museum.
The only variation from the circle is, first, a kind of horse-
shoe pattern ; and, secondly, a kidney-shaped pattern, formed by
a line drawn into a kind of spiral at each end. The number of
concentric circles varies from one to nine, whereas on the men-
hirs only one circle is to be found ; and, as is common in the
markings in other districts, several are connected together by a
groove.
The number of figures in the groups varies from nine or ten
(excluding the pits or cups) to thirty- nine. Near Lochgilphead
are three groups at least, but so close to each other that I
reckon them as one. In all cases, menhirs and sepulchral
remains are not far off.
2. Menhirs. — Very great numbers of these interesting hoary
stones are found in various localities about this district, and
many more existed a few years ago. It is said that at one
time an avenue of them extended fit>m Lochgilphead, just
below the largest group of petroglyphs, up to the spot near Kil-
martin where there is a range of cairns. Several pairs of these
are to be seen in this route, till we arrive at a field, in the very
midst of burials, where seven are now standing. These seven
do not form part of a circle, but are arranged in three patches,
four in one patch, two in another, and one by itself; they are
very high and broad, and two of them are marked with pits and
circles. The one standing by itself is perforated, such as are
often called " Odin stones." Not far from these is another
patch, if possible, more surrounded with burials. Some of these
also have the cup- and circle-markings. No menhirs have yet
been found with the symbols so common on the east coast, viz.
the " spectacles," the " mirror," &c. ; neither have any Ogham
inscriptions as yet been discovered.
8. Cairns and Burials. — ^There are several forms or modes
in which the cists &c. have been made : some are found in
large cairns, some are situated above and some below the sur-
face. In only two instances have I found unmistakable evi-
dence of unburnt bodies ; but several cists have been so much
Digitized byKjOOgle
148 Rev. R. J. Mapleton — On Prehistoric Remains
disturbed at an early period that it is hard to say what was the
original use.
(a) The first form that I shall describe is one in which the
body had been placed unbumt ; and it seems to me to be the
oldest form, unless the chambered sepulchre should be the
oldest. The common forms, made of four slabs, with a cover,
are found in various stages of neatness and perfection, and
some associated with well-made bronze implements. Some of
these also are found in the edges of large cairns, containing
either the " sepulchre " or the " toulder " cist, so that they were
in use at a later date than the others, though there does not
seem to be proof as to whether they might not have been used
before. In the ''boulder" cist, the grave is placed just
below the surface of the natural soil; it is dug out of the
ground. The sides and two ends are formed of large boulders
set in clay, and the shape is a long oval. The grave is covered
with a large, heavy, rough slab, in one instance 9 feet long, and
4 feet 7 inches wide ; in another 14 feet long, 8 feet wide, and
1 foot 3 inches in its thickest part. The first of these two cists
was in the centre of a large cairn, which still shows evidence of
having been 110 feet in diameter, and is still 13 feet 6 inches
high. There was not the slightest trace of burnt bones or of
charcoal ; but a thin layer of clay, which covered the boulders
at the bottom, was very unctuous and discoloured, and it was
clear that the body, bones, and flesh had all melted away. No .
implement of any kind, and no chip of flint could be discovered,
except a broken urn of red half-baked pottery, roughly but
highly ornamented, which had fallen to pieces through the
damp. At the S.W. comer of this cairn was found an ordinary
cist, containing urn and necklace, and surrounded by a double
circle of stones, which most clearly was built after the other, as
there were wallings and props between the stones of the circle,
towards the interior of the cairn, to preserve the cist from the
pressure on that side.
The other example of this form of cist at present occupies the
edge of the cairn, in which another cist is situated in the centre,
as the cairn now stands ; but a great deal of the cairn on that
side has been removed to make dykes, and so many cairns have
been altogether taken away, that very probably it was the pri-
mary burial. The interior of this grave is 7 feet 6 inches long,
3 feet 2 inches wide, 3 feet 6 inches high. It had been dis-
turbed long ago; for it contained several deposits of burnt
bones, most carelessly and negligently placed, separated from
each other by small rough fragments of stone. Here were de-
posits of perhaps eight or ten bodies. The cist is so exactly
similar to the one above described, that we must suppose that
at first it was constructed for one body unbumt. r^. i
^ .gitizedbyLjOOgle
in the Neighbourhood of the Crinan Canal, Argyllshire. 149
(6) Chambered Sepulchre. — Two examples of this form of
barial are still existing, about two miles apart, but I have a
suspicion that two others were destroyed not long ago. Both
are built on a very similar plan. Both were covered with a
large cairn, one of which we can trace to have been at least
134 feet in diameter, with a circle of great stones just within
its edge. The sepulchre itself is dug some 3 or 4 feet into the
ground, but part of the building is above ground, as the interior
of one is 8 feet 3 inches high, of the other 10 feet. The style
of building is similar, though differing in some slight respects.
The walls are formed of rough slabs of various sizes ; in one
they are placed horizontally, like a rough wall; in the other
they are upright, and the spaces filled in with other pieces.
Each is covered in by three or four large slabs. The entrance
to each is at the N.E. end, and is formed in one hj two upright
stones slightly converging, so as to narrow the entrance ; in
the other by two upright stones, not converging, but placed
a few feet apart, so as to admit a passage, and yet be readily
blocked up by a slab, by way of a door. The interiors are
very similar, being about 15 or 16 feet long, and divided into
three compartments; or perhaps we might say that one of them
has four, as there is a small compartment by the side of the
passage near the door. The compartments are formed by large
slabs running across the tomb, which appear to have been placed
there at first, as in one of the tombs they are regularly built
into the rough wall, and seem necessary for the support of the
fabric.
One of the tombs had undergone very great disturbance and
alteration. The compartments were fiUed up with stones and
rubbish, among which were found the fragments of two urns,
one of the usud form and material, the other of a black pottery
and unusual shape, and very tender from age and damp. On
the top of one of the compartments, a small cist of the usual
construction had been built, which probably had contained the
red urn whose fragments we found. This is another proof that
the ordinary cist was in use later than the chambered tomb.
At the very bottom of the compartments we found deposits of
burnt bone, flint blocks, and chips, and some very delicate well-
made arrow-heads of flint that I thtnk were made for use, not
for show; there was also one well-made flint scraper. There
can be no doubt that the tomb was built for burial after crema-
tion, and probably for a family or tribe.
The same may be said of the other tomb. Among the rub-
bish was found a portion of a very large urn, flint chips, and
blocks; and in the natural soil at the bottom were found several
deposits of burnt bones, some in the comers, and some in the
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
150 Rev. R. J. Maplkton — On Prehistoric Remains
middle. A great deal of charcoal was there^ and the sand was
reddened by fire, and in some places almost nm together.
Several fine flint scrapers were found of various shapes (knife-
shaped^ round, oval, leaf-shaped, oblong), all evidently made for
use. This part had never been disturbed. These two tombs
seem to have been made for family burial, and not for a single
interment, especially as some of the flint implements were found
fixed to the wall by clay, just above the deposit of bones, like
a slab or tombstone of the present day.
{c) Another form of cist is that made of four side-slabs and a
cover, on the ground or just above it. These vary somewhat
in size, but the average is about 3 feet 6 inches x 2 feet 4 inches,
and 1 foot 9 inches deep. The largest is 6 feet 4 inches X 3 feet
1 inch, and 4 feet 4 inches deep ; the smallest, 1 foot 6 inches
X 1 foot 3 inches X 1 foot 3 inches.
They are found in different situations, some being in the
centre of a cairn, with a circle of stones round them, some on
the outside of a cairn that contains other cists, some standing
in circles formed by a rampart of earth (and in these cases
several cists are in the same circle), and some standing in sand-
banks, with a cover just below the surface. These are associ-
ated with flint, urns, &c., but no bronze, except that in one
cairn, where we obtained three cists, each of different construc-
tion, we found among the stones a '^hone-stone,'' as it is
called, which might seem to imply bronze, though close to it
was a stone axe of hard green-stone. In this cairn we found
three cists, — one, a small one, near the outside, contained a
fine urn ; the second was the '^ boulder'' cist, described above,
with a cover 14 feet long ; and the third, occupying the present
centre of the cairn, was raised a few feet from the ground. This
cist is remarkable from its containing the remains of two
bodies. On opening the cist, we found on the surface an urn
of the same make and pattern as that in the small cist, and
burnt bone. A rough pavement seemed to form the bottom of
the grave; but on removing it we found the remains of an unbumt
body buried in clay. The bones of the leg and some of those
of the arms were p^ect. The skull was quite gone, except one
tooth. The bones were of the consistence of butter or new
cheese, and seemed almost to melt between the thumb and fin-
ger. The clay was unctuous and discoloured. From their size
I should judge the bones to be those of a full-grown and rather
tall man.
In the cairn where the other *' boulder" cist occurs, a cist
was discovered at the S.E. end, surrounded by a double circle.
This contained a very beautifril mm, of the ordinary materia],
but better baked and larger than usual, with four small ears or
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
in the Neighbourhood of the Crinan Canal, Argyllshire. 151
liandles^ having a hole through them, as though for* the passage
of a string for the purpose of suspension. Several beads and
two blocks of polished jet, forming part of a necklace, were
lying over the urn, which was sunk in the soil up to its rim.
It did not contain bones. Several cists have been found just
below the surface of the soil, placed by themselves, of the ordi-
nary type, and containing urns.
(rf) Another form of making or, rather, " placing" the cist is
when a cist of ordinary size and build is placed some 2 or 3 feet
below the surface, in a sand or gravel bank. In two of these,
that I did not see, but was told of by a man who opened the
cist while trenching the ground for a plantation, bronze was
found. The man took a bronze dagger, with six rivets still in
the handle, but was forced to replace it in the cist by his wife,
who feared that the ghost of the buried man woidd haunt him.
(e) There is another slightly different form, viz. that in which
the two side-slabs have rough grooves in them, to admit the
two end-slabs. Bronze was found in these ; a dagger and part
of another are still in the house of a farmer in this neighbour-
hood.
Perhaps I ought to add that burials are found occasionally on
tops of hills. I examined one hill that had a small cairn
on the top, that was disturbed a few years ago to make a seat,
and at that time '^ something'^ was found and taken away. I
rather suspect that this "something" was an urn.
I found the remains of an ordinary cist, i. e. there were slabs
that seemed as though they had been used for that purpose ;
but I found also two burials in a rough kind of cist, formed by
a comer of the rock, and supplemented by two slabs to form
the square; both contained burnt bone. I have reason to be-
lieve that burials still exist on other hill-tops. A few I know
to have been destroyed. The labour of carrying the boulders
and slabs up these hills must have been very great; but for what
reason the cists were placed in such situations I know not,
unless the spot was sacred from having been used for burial-
fires. As the glen contains such a number of burials of all
forms, and probably of many ages, the hill-top could not have
been selected simply for security's sake. No sculpture has been
found in the cists, except in one instance, where a lozenge-
shaped pattern was found cut in the cist-cover.
(/) On the moss, and throughout the hills, are several small
circles of stones. These contain burials, but I have not found
" cists." In one I found a sling-stone, in another a large block
of flint ; in another there was a perfect burial, consisting of
burnt bone, hastily and rather imperfectly burnt, deposited in
a very small heap of stones, together with sphagnum and other
bog-plants, charred and burnt. ^ I
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
152 Rev. R. J. Mafleton — On Prehistoric Remains
4. Residences. — I have not seen any "Piets' houses/' nor
have I heard of any ; but we have crannogs, duns, vitrified forts,
one brough, one cave-dwelling, and two or three flint-manu-
factories.
(a) Crannogs. — I have reason to believe that crannogs have
existed in most of the lochs, even in those of very small extent ;
but they have not anywhere, that I know, assumed the form of
villages, but are simply separate, solitary dwellings or forts.
They seem to have been built in various ways, according to the
nature of their position and the material that was most readily
to be obtained. In two that I have examined, the structure dif-
fered from that of those described by Mr. John Stewart, Secretary
to the S. A. of Scotland, which appears to be the general form in
the Lowlands. In one case the structure was entirely of stone, in
the other of wood, or rather trunks of trees placed alternately
upon each other. The stone structure* was formed by walling,
placed between projecting points of rock, and the interior filled
in with stones, giving the whole building the appearance of a
cairn under water. The walls were examined by divers, whom
I employed for the purpose. They represented the walls to be
most beautifully laid, more regular and strong than any dry wal-
ling or dykes at the present day. No mortar or cement was used,
and the stones bore no marks of tools. At ordinary levels, the
present top of the cairn is from 1 foot 6 inches to 2 feet below
the surface of the water. I have never seen the top of the cairn
above water in the driest season. The loch itself is about one
mile and a half in length, and about a quarter in width. The
wall varies in height, according to the. rock on which it is built ;
one portion is 8 feet high, another 6 feet, and another 4 feet 6
inches.
Near to the cairn the divers brought up some charred and
broken deer-bone, and a very beautiful paddle, shaped like an
arrow-head ; but the exceeding depth of mud prevents the hope
of finding other things.
The crannogt made of logs is situated in a much flatter part
of the country, where stone is not so readily obtained. I could
only dig down to the depth of three layers of logs, but I could
feel them nearly 12 feet down, by means of an iron rod. Some
of the trunks were 40 feet long and 4 feet 6 inches in circum-
fCTcnce. We found two or three fire-places on the surface of
the crannog, with a great deal of charcoal, and several charred
hazel-nuts.
Both the crannogs agreed in having a rampart of sharpened
* In Loch Kielziebar, \\ mile from Bellanoch^ on the Crinan Oanal.
t In Loch Ariflaigy now nearly drained ; but the crannog still exists, and
can he easily examined.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in the Neighbourhood of the Orinan Canal, Argyllshire. 153
stakes round them. We fished up several pieces from the mud
round the stone building, and nearly all the stakes are in situ
round the log structure; they are arranged about 3 feet dis-
tant from the crannog, and other logs ran horizontally round
the ends of these, and were fastened by grooves at the comers.
In Loch Awe there are several cairns under water, which I feel
sure are crannogs. In one that is some distance down the loch,
the timbers are visible at low water.
Altogether, in this district, I think that stone buildings were
the rule, as in most lochs there are islands and cairns under
water, which are most clearly artificial, and have not been made
for ornament.
{b) Duns. — Bough forts, built of stone without mortar, mostly
(if not entirely) circular, are very common, generally situated
on the top of some marked eminence commanding the smaller
glens among the hills. I have never heard of any implement
being found near any of them ; and they have been so much
disturbed and robbed of their stones, that it is hard to ascer-
tain anything beyond their extent.
(c) One Vitrified Fort exists close to this place and very near
the sea ; it occupies an eminence that probably was once almost
surrounded by the sea, perhaps at the time of the 40-foot beach.
It was simply a wall enclosing the crown of the hill, occupying
a space of 40 yards in diameter. The stones are very strongly
run together, and apparently cemented by some vitrified sub-
stance.
Another specimen that I examined, not far from Ardnamur-
chan, was a long triangular building enclosing a long narrow
neck of hiU, not far from the sea. Its length is 342 feet, the
width 33 feet, and the wall in some places is 8 feet high, and
6 feet 9 inches thick ; within the enclosed space are two small
round hollows or pits, surrounded by a vitrified wall.
(d) We have one hrough situated on low ground, close to the
sea ; it is not more than one mile from a Dun up the little glen ;
the building stands at the end of a bay or sea loch ; the walls
are 7 or 8 feet thick, very strong, built without mortar j one of
the chambers in the wall is still in existence, and there are ap-
pearances of where another may have been. We partly exa-
mined the floor near the chamber, and found great quantities
of deer-, cow-, and pig-bones among sand, but nothing to show
the' time when these were placed there. I am informed that
broughs are more common towards the east or north-east of
Scotland, and were once considered peculiar to that side of the
island.
(e) In a sea-cave just above the level of the 25-foot beach,
a few years ago, we discovered the remains (or part of the re-
Digitized by LjOOQIc
154 Rev. R. J. Mapleton — On Prehistoric Remaitu
mains) of a family of nine persons^ of various ages^ as was
evident from the characters of the teeth &c. The rock over-
head had fallen in and fiUed the cave> and thus kiUed the family.
Bones of red deer and shells of various sorts were found inside
and just outside the cave. A flat round stone^ charred and
reddened^ was found imbedded in charcoal and ash^ and near
this the burnt leg-bone of a red deer. The family must have
occupied the cave for a long time ; no vestige of metal or pottery
could be found. The only implements were two flint scrapers
and a block of flint ; a third scraper was afterwards brought to
me by a workman^ but as I did not see it taken out, I cannot
vouch for it. The cave is not more than 200 yards from the
vitrified fort. The only perfect skull was pronounced in London
to be a genuine Celtic skull.
(/) Perhaps under the head of Residences should be placed
a flint manufactory that was discovered in the moss not far
from the large groups of Petroglyphs. I did not see it ; but we
have some flakes of flint and flint scrapers that came from it :
as far as I can learn, it was a small pit, narrower at the bottom
than the top ; the remains of an oak-stump was close to it. I
did not hear of any tool being found there; and as the place was
discovered by a labourer, who appropriated the flint to strike
fire for his pipe, there may have been all the requisite tools.
The fiint was in large flakes, very like the flint that is brought
over here from Ireland ; the flakes had been prepared and care-
fully broken off from the mass, with the view of making scrapers
and other implements; they were long, narrow, and thin.
Several implements were found in various stages of perfection ;
I believe the quantity found was very great. If this spot had
been examined by some one who understood the matter, it would
have been a most interesting dbcovery.
Several deposits of flint have been found in various spots,
though I believe without signs of a dweUing ; several dozens of
rough pieces, of the size and shape to make scrapers, were found
in draining a deep moss. Another lot was found in the hills ;
but unfortunately I never hear of these things till a short time
afterwards, and then I am not able to ascertain the exact spot.
As we have no flint anywhere about here, the flakes must have
been imported ready for use.
I have very little to say about the implements that have been
preserved from this locality, as most of them were taken away
some years ago.
The flint implements seem to be of two characters ; first,
those made caretully and for use, and, secondly, those imperfectly
made and found in the more ordinary cists. A few articles
that have been found elsewhere than in cists are usually elabo-
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
in the Neighbourhood of the Crinan Canal, Argyllshire, 155
rately made. In the cists^ those found in the chambered sepul-
chres were beautifully finished; the arrow-heads were exceedingly
fine and delicate and of somewhat diflFerent shapes. The scrapers
from the other chambered tomb were also very well made and
of yarious shapes^ so that I cannot suppose that ^' shape ^' had
any thing to do with the period of deposit. The people seemed
to have used any likely bit of flint ; for we have found pieces of
flint of no regular shape, but yet nicely chipped on the edges,
and bearing marks of having been used. Those in the commoner
cists are very rough, and seem to have been made for the occa-
sion, for form's sake, hardly fit for use.
I should mention that unbumt cows' teeth are nearly always
found in the cists, and in such positions as to show that they
were placed there at the time of burial ; they are not foimd
among burnt bones of animals, as if a part of a funeral feast,
but as a part of the ceremonial.
A lump of white quartz is another article nearly always foimd ;
the people here still use this for striking fire when flint cannot
be obtained. The frequency of this gave us the impression of its
being also a part of the ceremonial, perhaps an emblem of fire.
The urns do not vary much. One type is the commonest, in
shape somewhat like an old-fashioned finger-glass; they are
better baked and in better preservation than most of those foimd
by Canon Greenwell. The roughest and the unusual shapes
are found in solitary cists, without cairns, and one from a rough
cist in a circle of earth.
Discussion.
Dr. Nicholas observed that the menhirs (long stones) described
in the paper differed from those which he had examined in Brittany
in one very striking respect ; for, judging from the transverse sections
fiven on the diagram-board, they had evidently been formed by
uman labour into a regular shape ; and it was difficult even to
imagine the amount of labour it required, with such tools as were
then in use, and the bard materials to work upon, to bring those
great masses of rock into any regular form. The menhirs of Brit-
tany (he referred especially to that wonderful assemblage of them at
and near Camac) had been erected as they were found, as great
boulders or masses of dislocated rock. Ko effort had been made to
give them any uniformity of shape. But he observed on many of
them certain stri©, which were not the effects of the action of glaciers
or icebergs, but seemed to be the work of human hands. It was
observable that this paper confirmed the conclusions of Dr. Lukis as
to the sepulchral character of most of these gigantic monuments ; but
this was by no means inconsistent with the idea that they had also
a religious significance.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
156 George Busk — On an Ancient Chinese Calva.
Ordinary Meeting, Feb. 22iid, 1870.
Professor Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair.
New Member, — ^Edward Backhouse, Esq.
The following note was read by the author : —
XVIII. Supplementary Remarks to a Note on an Ancient
Chinese Calva. By George Busk, Esq., F.R.S.
SiNCE.my former communication was read^ I have been favoured
through Mr. Mummery with some additional information on the
subject of these prepared skulls from China, derived from Mr.
W. Lockhart and Mr. Swinhoe, both authorities of the greatest
weight in matters connected with Chinese customs.
In a letter to Mr. Mummery, Mr. Lockhart observes that he
has been informed by his friend Mr. Wylie that the frx>ntal let-
ter is the Tibetan character for the vowel sound a as m father j
and that it is also used as a numeral for thirty. The trefoil
symbol he regards probably as an emblem of the Buddhist
Trinity. Mr. Wylie is of opinion that the skull is of Mongol
origin, and was taken from a lama temple near Peking.
Mr. Lockhart himself is acquainted only with the lamds
among the Mongols and Tibetans at Peking; and says that the
cadets of the families of the Mongol Princes are often made into
Lamas or Priests, and retained at Peking in monasteries at the
public expense as hostages for the fealty of the other members
of the family.
As Mr. Wylie's opinion, above cited, appeared to cast some
doubt upon the statement that the gold-mounted calva had been
taken at the sack of the Summer Palace, I endeavoured to
ascertain from Mr. Lockhart the probable grounds upon which
it was founded, and he was good enough to procure from Mr.
Swinhoe the following interesting particulars.
Mr. Swinhoe writes, " that when the British army was lying
oflf the North Wall of Peking, the military train were housed
in the 'Hih-Sze' (a Lama Temple). I went there,^' he says,
^' and saw in the inner shrine two of the gold-mounted calvarim
in question. Each was a skull of itself, without the lower jaw
and the teeth of the upper. The skull was cut in two, so that
the crown lifted off; and both the upper and lower portions of
the skull thus divided were lined with gold. This temple was a
purely Tibetian one, where the priests spoke no Chinese, and I
could get no information from them. It was full of designs of
skulls and bones on hanging cloths ranged round the Central
Hall, and was filled with ^Avenging Gods;' and I was of the
• Journ. Ethn. Soc. vol. ii. p. 73.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
C. MoNRMAN — Discoveries in Recent Deposits. 157
opinion that the skulls were those of enemies slain by the Ti-
betans. The calvaruB, so far as I could learn, were used for
pouring libations into the fire which was kept burning before the
shrine^. I heard of other calvaria being found in other parts
of the same temple ; but I myself only saw the two above men-
tioned. As soon was it as discovered that they were lined with
the precious metal they became objects of theft and concealment,
BO that there was no seeing any more of them. I did not hear
of any having been found in the ' Yuen-ming-yuen.^ The gold-
mounted ones would probably be the skulls of prominent ene-
mies, whilst those lined with copper might be those of inferior
chieftains.^'
From the above description of the two gold-mounted skulls seen
by Mr. Swinhoe in the Buddhist temple, it would appear scarcely
probable that either of them could have been that which was
exhibited on the last occasion, and which consisted solely of the
calva or upper portion of the skull. Consequently, if Mr. Swinhoe
in his, perhaps hurried, view was not deceived in what he saw of*
the mounted skulls, and did not mistake the gold lid or cover for
a second portion of the calvaria, it would appear that the Tibe-
tan or Chinese Buddhists are in the habit of preparing skulls in
two different manners. But it seems to me, in the absence of
further evidence to the contrary, more probable that Mr. Swin-
hoe may have been deceived, and that the specimen exhibited in
1862 was in all probability one of those seen by him in the
temple of " Hih-Sze.''
Mr. Lockhart has also been kind enough to afford me the
opportunity for exhibiting a second calva prepared in the same
way as the former, and like that, as I am informed, mounted on
a tripod stand and furnished with a lid. There is, however, this
important difference, that the lining and rest of the mount-
ings are of copper instead of gold, and that neither the metal nor
the bone is sculptured. The skull itself in the present instance
is rather larger and considerably thicker, and with stronger
muscular impressions than the former one, but otherwise of the
same shape and proportions.
The following paper was then read by the Assistant-Secre-
tary:—
XIX. On Discoveries in Recent Deposits in Yorkshire.
By C. MoNKMAN, Esq.
The following paper contains a record of discoveries of the
later prehistoric period in Yorkshire. The districts, lying
♦ This is in curioua accordance with what Livy states respecting the JBoii,
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158 C. MoNKMAN — On Discoveries
wide, are taken in separate sections, viz. — I. The Kelsea-Hill
Clay; II. The York Sands; and. III. The Vale of Pickering.
I. The Kelsea^mU Clay.
The discovery of "struck-off^^ flints, since 1864 (some of
which show chipping and sign of use), in the clay of Kelsea
Hill (then supposed to be the postglacial ^'Hessle^^ clay), in
the East Biding of Yorkshire, has lately aroused considerable
attention. The occurrence of the flint flakes and tools in this
early clay was first observed by Mr. J. R. Mortimer, of Pimber ;
but it was not until midsummer of 1868 that a systematic
search was instituted. In December of the same year I
accompanied Mr. Mortimer to the place, and we were rewarded
by the discovery of " hand-struck " flints, protruding from the
clay at various depths. One implement was half of a " finger-
flint" or " flaking-tool," chipped finely along the edges, and
smoothed at the end by use (PL XV. fig. 1). This was picked
* down from the face of the day cliflp by Mr. Mortimer, who, as
well as I, saw it protruding at a depth of fully five feet irom
the surface. This is the best chipped tool yet found, the
remainder being cores, one of which shows seventeen facets
(fig. 2) ; and struck-off flakes of all shapes, from the most
delicate to the coarsest, some of which latter have been worked
into '^ scrapers ^^ (figs. 3, 4, 5). It is to be regretted that
Kelsea Hill, near Keyingham, in Holdemess, where the flints
are found, is fast disappearing, the North-Eastem Railway
Company^s ballast-pit being there. The flints have become
rare, the main yielding site having been already taken away.
The " Hessle clay," of which the flint-yielding deposit at
Kelsea Hill was at first supposed to be a part, is so named
from the evidence furnished at Hessle on the Humber, near
Hull, of the overlap and unconformity of this clay to the true
boulder-clay of Holderness ; and the world is indebted to Mr.
Searles V. Wood, jun., F.G.S., and the Rev. J. L. Rome, F.G.S.,
for the knowledge of its existence as a separate and distinct
deposit, and of its position, relative to the glacial series, as a
postglacial formation ^.
The fact that the flint-bearing clay of Kelsea Hill was not a
member of the Hessle-clay series, which clay caps the hill, was
completely made out on the occasion of the visit of Sir Charles
Lyell, Bart., to the East Riding, in the spring of 1869. Pre-
viously the Rev. J. L. Rome had paid a hurried visit to the
pit, in company with Mr. Symonds ; and the aspect of the cliff
suggested a suspicion that the stiff, flint-yielding clay which
remained on the west side of the pit was quite different from
• See paper in Quart. Joum. Qeol. Soc. Lond. vol. xxiv.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in Recent Deposits in Yorkshire. 159
the true Hessle-clay capping on the face of the pit which looks
south. The latter had the unfailing characteristics of the
Hessle clay, — the blue or ash-coloured fracture, and the
pyramidal-shaped blocks into which it breaks. The former
wanted these; and a more leisurely visit and examination
confirmed the suspicion that the flint-yielding clay represents
a very difiPerent condition of things from that represented by
the Hessle clay, and may belong to any part of the later pre-
historic epoch. Mr. Rome called the attention of Sir Charles
Lyell to the difference iu the two clays, who entirely agreed
that, while one was the true Hessle clay, the other was not
(fig. 6) . How, then, was the flint-bearing clay to be accounted
for ? Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Rome concur in this answer :
they think the flint-bearing clay to be a wash from old Kelsea
HiU, which has now (from railway needs) disappeared, the top
of which used to be as high as the vane of Keyingham church-
steeple on the opposite hill. In recent times, and traditionally,
old Kelsea HiU was a place of popular resort, where feasts and
games were held. It would probably have similar attractions
in the later prehistoric times * ; and on its green slopes, or on
the wave-like ridges at its foot (such a one as now, in part,
remains on the western side of the pit, where Mr. Mortimer
and I made our discoveries), the old flint-usiug folks played
their games and chipped their flints. In the course of a
lengthened period these chippings, and with them occasional
worked flints, were covered by the derivative clay, formed by
the washings of the Hessle clay proper on the hill-top ; and,
instead of their being of that enormous age first supposed, they
may be in reality no older than the flints from the York sands,
or from the Ryedale fluviatile beds, afterwards to be mentioned.
Thus the opinion expressed at the time by Mr. John Evans,
'^ that the sands and clays at York and Kelsea are either of very
recent age, as compared with the old river-gravels, or that the
implements found in them are not of the same age as the beds,''
is frdly borne out. The implements from Kelsea are, as Mr.
Evans further observed, " identical in character with the stone
implements found on the surface, and which probably remained
in use, at all events, as late as 3000 years ago, if not to consi-
derably later times.'' The flints are certainly not insertions ;
they are found at all depths, without any regard to the law of
gravitation.
II. The York Sands.
A large find of flint implements occurred in the York sands
in the autumn of 1868, while the men of the North-Eastem
• The Rev. William Greenwell suggests that the place may have been
used for defensive purposes, and so contain signs of occupation. "
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Google
160 C. MoNKMAN* — On Discoveries
Railway Company were excavating^ on the east of the line^ for
the erection of new gas-works about one mile north of York.
Unfortunately I did not bear of the discovery till the end of the
year, by which time, if recent reports are to be relied on, most
of the implements had become dispersed, and, except in one
case, cannot now be traced. Fortunately the resident engineer,
Mr. Thomas Cabry, had secured part of the find, and these he
presented to me. They are one stone adze (PL XV. fig. 7), one
fiiie flint hatchet (fig. 11), four oval flint knives or spear-heads
(figs. 8, 9, 10, 12), and two flint flakes (figs. 13, 14). The
implements were described to me by the Rev. J. L. Rome, who
first saw them and the place, as having come out of the undis-
turbed sands of the postglacial Ouse, of the wide-river period ;
and thus, as their type is neolithic, there arose an archaeological
puzzle to solve. On visiting the place with Mr. Sharpe, an
engineer in Mr. Cabry's department, who had charge of the
works, and in whose presence part of the find took place, I
found the bank had been remov^ for some distance beyond the
point where the implements were deposited ; but the remaining
face showed that the sand-beds contained horizontal bands of
marly clay, indicating a still-water deposition, in one of which
bandfi the implements were imbedded, about five feet above the
present railway level, and therefore from nine to ten feet below
the former surface (fig. 15.) Singularly, the whole of the
flints were close together, as if carefully deposited in one heap,
it being, however, stated that no sign of disturbance was visible
in the overlying beds of loamy clay and sand. Had the imple-
ments been of a palieolithic type, their presence there, as having
been contemporaneously deposited with the sands, could have
been understood. Subsequently the Rev. Canon Green well,
the Rev. J. Robertson, Mr. G. W. Slater, and Mr. Sharpe
accompanied me to the place, and we were met there by the
''ganger^' (or foreman of the workmen when the find was
made), who gave his version, differing only slightly from that of
Mr. Sharpe. So far as the evidence went, we could not make
out that any sign of disturbance had been noticed, nor had any
discoloration of the upper sand, or the presence of other manu-
factured articles than the flints (which would have shown a later
insertion in the beds), been observed. The ganger particularly
remembered that, at the time, there was a patch of rough gravel
near the top, which did not show any sign of having been broken
through.
The difficulty of receiving the alleged contemporaneousness
of the deposit of the sands and implements is this : — first, the
implements are neolithic in type, the axes being ground and
polished, and are therefore without precedent as belonging to the
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in Recent Deposits in Yorkshire. 161
deposits of the wide-river period ; secondly^ they are not in any
d^^reeiirater-wom^ but are, on the contrary, beautifully fresh and
sharp, and have evidently never been in use (one of the knives
has lost its point), which facts, taken in connexion with their
being found together, indicate an insertion subsequent to the
sand-bed deposition ; and, thirdly, no archseologist or geologist
saw the implements in situ.
The nature of the sands is described by Mr. Borne. " The
beds," says that gentleman, " are not drift in any sense of the
word, there being no trace of drifted materials of any kind.
When I first saw the section from the railway-train, I thought
it had a ' Hessle clay' aspect; and it was this impression which
led me to visit the place, and to the discovery of the implements
in the engineer's ofBice. The actual inspection of the section
showed me at once that the deposit did not belong to the series
of the Hessle beds (deposited when the vale of York was an
inland sea), but to a much later period, when that old post-
glacial sea-bed had become dry land and the present river
system had become established. In the absence of freshwater
shells it may seem presumptuous to express a positive opinion ;
but I think there can be little doubt that the hill through
which the railway cuts is a sand-bank of the later prehistoric
Onse, which was much larger and broader than the historic and
present river of that name.'' Mr. Sharpe has kindly obtained
for me the measurements, which give the height of the find
above the present river-level at 26 feet, and the distance from
the river 396 yards, the intervening distance being of similar
sand-hiUs, and the flat, low-lying fluviatile clay of the Ouse.
When the implements were given to me by Mr. Cabry, I was
under the impression that I had received the whole of the find,
Mr. Rome restoring one, which he had taken (the broken one)
in order to make the collection complete. I have since dis-
covered that my flints represent only one-half of what are now
known to have come from the sand-bed, and but a very small
part of what we are now asked to believe were found. I
learned that Mr. Ed. Allen, of York, possessed flints from this
same sand-bed, and that gentleman has permitted me to see
them and to take outlines. His collection is all of flint, and
contains two axes (one a very fine specimen of a ground imple-
ment), three roear-heads or knives, two chipped scrapers, and
eleven large flakes; but they are not equal in beauty, as a
whole, to laose in my possession, though fully as perfect, and
quite unused. Mr. Allen has obtained a somewhat difierent
version of the find from the men, and the new statement is so
remarkable that I will record it in his own words. In a letter,
under date Nov. 15, 1869, Mr. Allen writes: — '* Thomas
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162 C. MoNKMAN — On Discoveries
Chapman^ foreman of the workmen^ and Martin' Hughes,
labourer, who were present when the discovery was made,
inform me that the flints were fonnd in a sand-bed buried
about six or seven feet below the surface, and lying in a space
of not more than two feet in diameter. 7%ere were from fourteen
to twenty axe-heads, many spear-heads, atid at least a bushel of
flakes*. Most of the axes and spear-heads were sent to Mr.
Cabry's ofBice. The flakes were not thought of any value, and
were removed along with the sand, and used as ballast for the
line. No other flints were found in the neighbourhood, although
the sand was excavated to some depth, and removed for several
hundred yards. Chapman, the foreman, states positively that
there was a layer of gravel over the flints, which was not found
in any other part, and he has no doubt that it was used to fill
up the hole in which the flints were deposited'^ f. Mr. Allen
further informs me that he obtained most of his specimens
from the man, Martin Hughes, who was working next to the
man who made the discovery, and also suggests that the deposit
was the hoard of a manufacturer of, or dealer in flint weapons.
I may remark that, in conjunction with Mr. Charles Cabry,
I have tried to discover the whereabouts of the remaining axes
and spear-heads said to have gone to the engineer's office, but,
beyond those in my possession, none can be traced. Mr. ^
Allen's collection and mine represent only four axes out of
"14 or 20," only seven of the "many spear-heads" are
accounted for, and but thirteen out of the " bushel of flakes "
have been obtained. It seems likely that the flints I received
from Mr. Cabry were magnified into the incredible number
mentioned by the men, and that Mr. Allen's collection and
mine really include the whole find — ^important enough, cer-
tainly.
There is another fact of interest in connexion with the York
sands. Mr. James Cook, of Holgate Lane, York (a gentleman
who has devoted a long life to the collection of antiquities), in
the year 1847 picked up a fine stone axe fifom the sand-bed
adjoining the Ouse at York, near where the Scarborough
Railway crosses that river. The axe had 1)een buried in the
sand, but had been thrown out in excavation for railway works,
and therefore no further details could be obtained. The place
where Mr. Cook's axe was found and the site of the gas-works'
discovery are, perhaps, a mile apart, but the beds are in every
respect similar deposits.
* This statement has recently been read to the members of the Yorkshire
Philoeophical Society.
t This version diners in some measure from the information given to my
friends and to me, when inquiring on the spot
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in Recent Deporits in Yorkshire. 163
«
III. 7%tf Vale of Pickering.
Lying between the Wolds and the Howardian Hills on the
souths and the North Riding Moors on the north, is the large
basin known as the Vale of Pickering, tapering almost to a
point at Helmsley on the west, and at Filey on the east, being
thirty miles in length. A line of eight miles, drawn north and
sonth, from Pickering to Malton, where the vale is the widest,
divides the basin into two nearly equal parts, the western half,
to Helmsley, being drained by the Rye and its tributaries, and
from this called '^ Ryedale,'' and the eastern half being drained
by the Upper Derwent and its tributaries, and so called the
'^Derwent valley .'' These rivers run (in opposite directions)
to near Malton, and, uniting, drain the greatest part of North-
Eastem Yorkshire. Even now these rivers and their contri-
butaries are subject to high fioodings, and swell, from compara*
tively small streauMs, to large rivers, some of a quarter to half a
mile in width. A high flood is estimated to submerge 32 square
miles^, and this land is known in Ryedale as ^^ ings,'' and in
the Derwent valley as '^ carrs.'' The same names are given to
flat tracts, out of reach of flood now, but which, within the
human period, have been the beds of laige streams, when in
fact the Yale of Pickering was little less than one vast lake.
These -low-lying, flat tracts have now from 3 to 5 feet of fluvia-
tile deposits, locaUy known as the " river-clay ,*' which in the
western and higher parts of Ryedale are really clay derived from
the glacial deposits, but which as Malton is approached become
peaty and fibrous, and in going eastward up the Derwent from
Malton, getting more and more so until near Filey, where they
are lacustrine peat, pure and simple, and of unknown depth.
Belting the wolds and moors are beds of sand, indicating the
shore of the Vale of Pickering in the wide-river period; and in
the heart of the vale, in the Ryedale half particularly, are
numerous prominences of glacial date, to which the Saxon name
of '' Holm,'' indicating the land among the waters, is yet applied.
It is around these holms, and along the fiat, ancient river-
deposits, that the earlier stone antiquities of the district have
been found. On the hills, the surface soil in parts abounds with
them, but in the valley they are met with at depths varying
with the thickness of the clayey accumulations, from 3 ft. to 5 ft.
being mostly the rule. Some are foimd among the gravel of
the ancient river-bed, others are midway in the fiuviatile day
deposit, and some are almost at the surface and turn up with
the plough; in short, they are discovered at all depths, and
have, like the Kelsea-Hill flints, been lost or deposited at widely
* Malton Messenger's Leader, Feb. 2, 1867.
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164 C. MoNKMAN — On Discoveries
differing dates. The frequency with which remains of the later
stone period have been met with during the past six years (since
they have been looked for^ and the labourers have been educated
to recognize their forms and value) is surprising. The district
seems full of the relics of the ancient people who inhabited the
hills^ and came down into the valleys on himting or other
expeditions. The axes^ when founds have often the signs of
violent use upon them ; but in some instances they have been
dug out quite perfect^ and in two or three cases of unusually
large size, and of peculiar form. They present widely different
appearances. Some are chipped out roughly, and ground to a
cutting edge, with the least amount of expended labour to
answer the intended use ; others, on the contrary, are ground
over their whole surface, and to the greatest exactness of form.
They are all of the stones of the neighbourhood, gathered from
the denuded slopes, or extracted from the boulder-clay, and
therefore show a great variety of the early rocks. According
to the position in which they are foimd their surfaces are
affected. Some, in sand or clay, retain their polish as if made
yesterday; others, from limestone gravel, are thickly coated
with lime accretions ; and when from a ferruginous band, the
weapons are stained of a deep Indian-red tint. Singularly no
flint axe has yet been found in Ryedale or in the Derwent
valley, the nearest approach being a lump of flint from the peat
at Flixton, near Filey, which is in my possession (PI. XVI.
fig. 8). _
It is to the spirit of agricultural improvement now going on
that we are mainly indebted for the knowledge of the early
occupation of Ryedale, and for the discoveries of the weapons.
During the last six years more than a dozen stone axes have
passed through my hands, which have been found at various
depths, and in most instances in land-drainage works. In
some cases the implements or weapons have been found as far
back as twenty years ago, and have been retained as " curious
stones" and modem ^'rockwork^' ornaments. "The Ryedale
axes ^' (for Ryedale has been most prolific) are principally in
the collections of the Rev. William Greenwell, Mr. John Evans,
the Rev. J. L. Rome^ and myself. A stray one or two has got
into the hands of the curiosity hunter.
From Slingsby, in Ryedale, there is a lateral valley, known
as the Vale of Mowbray, which is connected with the great
plain of York. This lesser vale has the same geological character ;
and the subsidiary valleys of the Howardian Hills have all
deposits of the ancient wide-river horizon, and have yielded
sparingly similar manufactured remains. This valley is sepa-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
til Recent Deposits in Yorkshire, 165
rated from Byedale by the spur of the Hambletons^ known as
" Canlkless/' on which flint implements and ancient earthworks
are found.
The first event which led me to regard the extensive fluviatile
deposits of the district as weapon* and implement-yielding
areas^ was the discovery, early in 1866, during drainage opera-
tions on the banks of the Rye, near Byton, of a very good
hammer-stone, about 2 feet deep in the clay (PI. XVI. fig. 9).
This is a pebble of a fiat egg-shape, about 5 in. long and 3| in.
wide, and 1| in. thick, pierced for the handle with great care.
Nothing further turned up until 1867, when the group of
drainers removed to the Sleights' Farm, in the neighbourhood
of Newsham Bridge, further up the Bye. Here the Rev. J.
Robertson was nearest to the work, and had the pleasure of finding
several "used" stones (rubbers or poimders) and five well-
worked flints, all of a red colour (figs. 2-6). Singularly, he
had not the good fortune to obtain an axe. The flints were
from 3^ to 4 ft. in the clay, and comprise a remarkably fine
lozenge-shaped javelin-head, about 2^ in. long (fig. 4), a leaf-
shaped arrow-point (fig. 5), and three arrow-points of the
triangular form (figs. 2, 3, 6), two having hollowed bases
(figs. 2, 6). During that year, and indeed during each winter
since, stone axes and other forms of weapon have been obtained
frt>m the drainers and labourers in the vale, either found in the
excavations or left unobserved upon the land. One of the latter
class, a fine Ume-coated gouge of greenstone (fig. 10), was so
picked up by Mr. T. E. Satterthwaite (Earl Carlisle's agent), at
Ganthorpe bottoms, near Castle Howard, and has been presented
to the Bev. William Greenwell. • Of the many others which I
have succeeded in obtaining, the best specimens are those now
known as the " Normanby axe " (fig. 11), red in colour, 8 in. in
length, found in the bed of the river Severn in 1864; the
" GiUing axe" (fig. 12), 8 in. long, of a drab colour, found in
peaty day, 4 ft. deep, in 1868 ; and the " Ness axe,'' 10 in. long,
found in the clay near the Bye bank (fig. 13.) The sections
of the two last named are square, or oblong-square, a novel
feature, which has led to their being engraved for Mr. Evans's
forthcoming book on stone implements. There is one more
tool worthy of particular mention, viz. a pierced stone axe,
6^ in. long, found at Sackleton bottoms in 1869 (fig. 14).
All the four relics particularized are in the collection of Mr.
Greenwell. The remainder of the axes found in Upper Byedale
are of the ordinary form, and mostly of small size. There is an
exception, however, in a very fine three-edged cutting imple-
ment, evidently for some domestic use, possibly a knife for
skinning, founanear Harome, which is also in Mr. Green well's
Digitized by VjQOQ IC
166 C. MoNKMAN — On Discoveries
collection (fig. 15) ''^. No flint axes have yet been found in
the recent clays of Upper Ryedale; but in the valley of the
Derwent proper, below the confluence of the Rye and Derwent,
from the brickfield at Norton, near Malton (now closed), in
the angle formed by the intersection of the Thirsk and the
Scarborough railways, I have obtained two dark flint axes,
found between 8 and 4 feet deep (flgs. 16, 17). One is over
6 in. long, and is a very flne specimen. The two were found
together, and have probably been formed from the same block
of flint. At a corresponding depth, but on the opposite side of
the river, two bone pins (figs. 18, 19) and two flint " scrapers "
were found. These were 2 to 8 feet in the undisturbed
clay, which, however, was overlain by 3 to 4 feet of d&ris
from the Roman camp at Malton, which abounds in fragments
of Roman pottery, and has yielded some burials of Roman
datet- Going eastward into the peat country of the Upper
Derwent, the finds have not been so numerous. They are not
deserving of special notice, beyond the fact that the axes from
the peat are in very fine preservation. I have a beautiful one
from Scampston (fig. 20), which has for some years been in the
hands of Mr. J. R. Mortimer, of Fimber. The flakes are of a
red colour when made of pure flint, but some are of a peculiar
cherty stone (figs. 1> 7). The main finds of stone implements
have been made at Oanthorpe, Sackleton^ Oilling, Harome,
Coxwold, Ryton, Kirby-Misperton, Newsham Bridge, Ness,
Norton, Scampston, and Flixton; but there are others not
easily traced.
There have been two discoveries of human remains in the
day, one at Kirby-Misperton, the other at Malton. The former
occurred at Kirby-Misperton in July 1866, while cleansing the
lake in the park. The skeleton was wonderfully perfect, and
much vivianitized ; it was that of a strong-made man. The
body had evidently been contracted, and was lying on the left
side, with the head to the east, and was about 8 feet below the
surface. The skull (a most perfect one) is dolichocephalic in
type; 7^ in, greatest length, 5^ in. breadth, and 5-|-| in.
height. The cephalic index gives breadth to length -72, height
'78. The skull is without any marked peculiarity, and differs in
no way from the ordinary Teutonic head, or fit>m many of those
* Since this paper was in type I have procured another curious skinner
from the same district, which is in Mr. Oreenwell's collection. It may be
described as an oblong axe or chopper, the longest side being around to a
most perfect cutting-edge of considerable len^pth. On one face is a depres-
sion, and on the opposite &ce are two depressions, fitting the thumb ana two
first fingers of the right hand. Mr. Evans will engrave the implement
t The skulls are in Mr. GreenwelFs collection.
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m Recent Deposits in Yorkshire. 167
from the circular tumuli of the district. The latter instance
occurred at Malton in April 1866. In throwing a new yiaduct
across the Derwent^ the North-Eaatem Railway Company made
three attempts to reach the Kimmeridge clay beneath the bed
of the river east of Malton. At a depth of 10 feet of day
(fluviatile) and 3 ft. of sand a human skeleton was founds the
skull being tjrpeless. The only clue as to date lay in the fact
that in an adjoining coffer-dam, at about the same depth, an
unomamented and very rudely made earthen vessel was found,
&shioned like British, but burnt as hard as Roman ware. The
third struggle against the water brought to light a pair of bone
pins (doubtless belonging to the skeleton) made from the fibula
of a red deer, and at a depth of 18 feet underlying the human
skeleton were found the antlers of a red deer, some vertebrae,
and a femoral bone. These were by the side of an immense
oak tree, which had been overturned in the direction of the
present stream. The relics were all sent to the Rev. W.
Oreenwell.
A recent discovery of consequence, as tending to show the
lake-like nature of Ryedale in the early human period, is that of
a boat or canoe on the farm of South Holm. This was struck
by the plough in the summer of 1869 while frirrow-draining.
The highest part was more than a foot below the surfSeu^e, and the
lowest more than 5 feet into the fluviatile clay. The boat, on
being dug out, was '' snigged '' off to a stick-heap, and has been
partly destroyed. It is formed fi*om a log of oak, 7 ft. in length,
and 3 ft. in diameter; the hollowed part is 5 fl. by 2 ft. 6 in.,
and 1 ft. 4 in. deep. The relic is in my possession. Subse-
quently, in the same district, in deepening the Slingsby beck, a
large nammer-stone was found ; it is carefully drilled from each
side (fig. 21). The implement is in my collection.
The latest finds of interest were during the last three months
of 1869. The Malton Board of Health drove a deep cutting (for
drainage) through the main street of Old Malton ; this, for a
long distance, was below the river-bed, and showed that the
Derwent at the place was once fully fifty yards wider than at
present. In throwing out the old river-bed, surprising quan-
tities of vivianitized bones of the horse, ox, dog, sheep, pig, and
some birds were found, but, singularly, all detached. In no case
was anything approaching a skeleton found. The only traces
of human occupation met with were two bone pins and half of
a horse's shoe of iron. The section of the cutting exhibited
the singular fact that, since the period when these bones &c.
were deposited, the river had piled up more than 15 feet of
alternating beds of sands and clays — ^the clays retaining the
footprints of oxen and sheep very distinctly, the impressions
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
168 . C. MoNKMAN — On Discoveries
having been filled up and preserved by the succeeding depoeitB
of sand.
EXPLANATION OF PLATES XV. Aitn XVL
Plate XV.
Fig. 1. Half of a fineer-flint from the Kelsea-hill daj. i aiie.
2. Flint core, with 17 facets, from ditto. } size.
Sy 4, 6. Flint scrapere, from ditto. } size.
6. Sketch-section of KelseaHilL
7. Stone adze, from the York sands. | size.
8. 9, 10. Flint spear-heads, from ditto, i size.
11. Flint hatchet, from ditto. | size.
12. Flint spear-head, from ditto, i size.
IS, 14. Flint flakes, from ditto, i size.
15. Section of the railway-cutting in the York sands.
Plate XVL
N.fi. All the specimens figured in this Plate are from the river-day of the
Vcue of Pickering, Yorkshire.
Fig. 1. Flake of chert^ stone, from the Upper Derwent. jt size.
2 to 6. Worked mnts, from Newsham JBridge, River Rye. ^ size.
7. Flake of cherty stone, from the Upp^i' Derwent. i size.
8. Flint from peat at Flixton, near Filey. I size.
9. Hanuner-stone, from the banks of the Rye, near Ryton. ^ size.
10. Qouffe of greenstone, from Ganthorpe bottoms. | size.
11. The Normanby axe. | sLse.
12. The Gilling axe. | size.
13. The Ness axe. ^ size.
14 Perforated stone axe, from Sackleton bottoms. | size.
16. Triangular implement, possibly a skinning knife, from near Harome.
} size.
16, 17. Flint axes, from Norton, near Malton, yalley of the Derwent
i size,
18, 19. Bone pins, from Ryedale. } size.
20. Stone axe, from Scampston. } size.
21. Hammer-stone, from dlingsby beck. } size.
Discussion.
Mr. J. W. Floweb obseryed that, of the several implements
exhibited, there was not one that could possibir be attributed to the
SalflBolithic or drift type. With regard to those which had been
escribed as found lying together under a solid mass of gravel, they
were in all probability a hoard, or part of a hoard, deposited for the
purpose of concealment by the maker or seller. Two of the imple-
ments appeared to him to be of uncommon form, if not altogether
unknown elsewhere in England. The large polished axe, squcured at
the sides (PI. XVI. fig. 13), differed decidedly from the forms usually
found in England, and approached closely to, although not identical
with, those met with in Denmark and Sweden. The bevelled or
gouge-shaped axe in red stone, which had been perforated to receive
a handle (PL XVI. fig. 14), appeared to him to be perfectly new. The
oval disk-like flints, with a cutting-edge all round, were larger and
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Joum. F.Lhao So c. Vol U. PJ ^
Flints from, KtUea. Hill Cloff. i Svie
Fig 6.
KtUta. mil
* ..»=•'''.!'
^^^' Vs4
^^•■••■•v.^^^
■.'Ah'tt7i!l<i^>.^'liitu*^'-
Kaihra^r
K.Fhunt. julding Ciaj :IfessU CLaj c. Sanda tc Boulders
Flints from York Stuid Beds i Size. fN? 7 Storvt)
Tig. 15
York Sand*
a 1 r ■ ^
^ Old Ra»imm;f CuJOuui . m.JUcsn£Lr r»nu„tMd. FUni^ fatuvd aJ. * * a. S^mi^
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Journ. E^hno■ Soc.Vol II. PI XV]
Ftg*. 1u,T^ Size. FCgS. 8u>21 i SU^ . TKe. whcU a^t fr^orrv tKc
Pu^^tr CU^ of OtA VaU of TUktruvg. CM.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in Recent Dytorits in Yorkshire. 169
better than were often met with. They were probably used for
Bhaping or catting the skinB for dresaes, after they had been cleansed
ana prepared by the flint scrapers; and, indeed, they might be said
to bear a rude and distant resemblance to implements used for the
like purpose by leather-cutters in our own times.
The £ev. J. L. Boms remarked that as none of the persons present
on the occasion of discorering the neolithic implements in beds of
the wide-river period were scientific obserrers, it was open to doubt
whether the implements were there from original deposition or from
subsequent disturbance of the beds. The supposed discovery of chip-
ped flmts in the Hessle clay of Kelsea Hill oy the author and '^^,
Mortimer would, if real, have been excessively interesting, because it
would have carried back the human epoch much further than any
reliable geologist, even of the most advanced school, in such matters,
had furnished geological grounds for thinking probable. That, how-
ever, was no valid reason for rejecting the supposed discovery by
Messrs. Monkman and Mortimer, because we ought to follow the truth
whithersoever it leads us. Mr. Eome, however, detected, on his
first visit to Kelsea Hill afterwards, that a much later wash accumu-
lated at the western foot of the now- vanished hill had been confounded
with the Hessle clay. It was a great satisfaction to Mr. Eome that
in April of last year Sir C. Lyell should have visited Kelsea Hill,
and snould have recognized the entire distinction between the true
Hessle clay and the kter wash out of it, in which the chipped flints
were founa.
Mr. Eome also idluded to the correlation between the Kelsea-Hill
beds and the Postglacial Oyrena beds of the Thames valley, which
had been suggested by Mr. Wood and himself, and further alluded
to Mr. "Wood's views on the elevation and denudation of the "Weald
as an event subsequent to the formation of the Thames gravel-
beds. Could this view be substantiated, the archadological interest
excited by Mr. Monkman*s supposed discovery of flints in the Hessle
day would be revived on other grounds ; for Colonel Lane Fox is
said to have discovered worked flints in the Thames beds, which,
according to Messrs. Wood and Eome, are the equivalents in age of
the Hessle-clay series.
Dr. Nicholas thought that the statements of navvies as to the
exact position where the implements were found ought to be received
with great caution by scientific men, especially when such descrip-
tions were made in any measure the basis of calculations respecting
the age of their deposit. But even allowing that these implements
had been actually found at the rumoured depth, he wished to point
out that a great thickness of gravel might be accumulated in a short
space of tiine. Places could be mentioned where, through extraordi-
nary floods, the channels of rivers bad in a day or two been changed
from one part of a valley to another, and the old bed had been filled
up and totally obliterated with much more than ten feet of gravel, at
the bottom of which articles might be found which conceivably had
only been made a year before.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
170 Dr. Jaoob — On the Natives of Naga,
The following paper was then read by the Assistant-Secre-
tary: —
XX. On the Natives of Naoa^ in Luzon, Philippine Islands.
By Dr. Jagor*.
Naga is the capital of South Camarines, the see of a bishop, and
the seat of the proyincial govemment. In official documents it
is called Nueva Carceres, a name given in honour of its founder
(1578), Greneral Don F. de Sande, who was bom at Carceres, in
Spain. Formerly Naga was the capital of all that part of
Luzon which lies east of Jayabes, and which, as the population
increased, was divided into the three provinces of North and
South Camarines and Albay. The divisioDS between these
governmental districts are drawn rather arbitrarily, especially
that between Albay and South Camarines; while the entire
region has well-defined geographical limits, and is still spoken
of as a whole under the name of Camarines.
It is inhabited by a race of Bicol Indians who differ in lan-
gviage and in other respects from their neighbours, the Tagals,
in the west, and from the Bisayas in the south and east. They
are limited to this district, and to the islands in the immediate
neighbourhood. As a rule they are inferior to the Tagals, both
physically and intellectually, while they are superior to the
inhabitants of the eastern Bisaya Isles.
Bicol is sj^ken only in the two Camarines, and Albay in
Luzon, and m the islands of Alabate, Burdas, Ticao, Catan-
duanes, and the small neighbouring isles. It is found in greatest
purity among the natives of the volcano of Isarog and its imme-
diate neighbourhood. Passing thence to the west, it becomes
gradually more like Tagal, so that even in Mambulao it contains
more Tagal than Bicol words ; while to the east it gradually
passes into Bisaya.
It will be sufficient to give the prevailing features in the life
of the Bicol Indians, as most of these are common also to the
Tagals and the Bisayas.
On the commencement of the rainy season the rice-culture is
undertaken. In South Camarines the sowing of the rice in beds
begins in June or July, according to the commencement of the
rain; but in fields that are artificially irrigated, it is begun
earlier, in order that the rice may ripen at a time when the stock
in the country is but small, and consequently the price high.
Although the fields artificisdly treated might well furnish two
crops annually, they are sown only once; they are neither
« Translated and abridged from the German manuscript by the Asaistantr
Secretary.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in Luzon, Philippine Islands. 171
manured nor ploughed^ but the mud brought down from the
mountains by floods in the rainy season serves the purpose of
manure.
Some peculiar points connected with the harvest deserve
notice. The rice which first ripens is cut at the rate of ten per
cent. ; that is to say^ the reaper takes the tenth bundle for his
labour. At this period rice is very scarce; there is often
poverty^ and labour is cheap. But as more fields become ripe^
the value of labour increases^ and the wages of the mower
accordingly rises to 20, 30, 40, or even 50 per cent.
Besides rice, batates, or sweet potatoes, are cultivated. These
grow readily, and as the runners, on strUdng root, form tubers,
they furnish an inexhaustible supply to the possessor during the
whole year.
After the rice-harvest, buffaloes, horses, and oxen are turned
into the fields. During the growth of the rice they remain in
the gogondles*, or steppes, which are formed where cleared
places are left for the culture of mountain-rice. The Indian
does not fodder his cattle, but leaves them to starve if they can-
not find support for themselves. In the wet season, it not
unfrequently happens that a buffalo, while drawing a load, falls
down dead £rom sheer hunger.
According to Morgat> there was neither horse nor ass in the
island until introduced by the Spaniards from China and New
Spain. Horses were also imported from Japan, and, although
not swift, they were strong ; they had large heads, thick manes,
and somewhat resembled Frise horses.
The cattle are small and well-flavoured, but the Indians prefer
buffalo-meat to beef. They eat meat, however, only on festive
occasions, and commonly subsist on fish, crustaceans,, mollusks,
and wild plants, with rice.
The old race of sheep introduced long ago by the Spaniards
thrive well and breed freely; but it is said that those brought
from Shanghai and Australia do not thrive. In Manilla, mutton
is to be had daily; but in the interior, especially in the eastern
provinces, it can rarely be obtained, although sheep-breeding
might be carried on without difficulty almost anywhere, and in
many parts to great advantage. In the lai^er districts, where
many Europeans dwell, an ox is slaughtered daily, or at least
periodically; but in more insignificant localities there is no
animal food but that of fowls.
Pork is eaten by the Europeans only when the pig is home-
fed. In order to prevent it from straying, the pig is commonly
put into a cage made of bamboo, or into a wide-meshed cylin-
* Qogo is the name of a cane from 7 to 8 feet high (SacdMrum, 8p.).
t Morga, ' Suoesos de las Idas I^ipinas/ Mexico, 1609, p. 130.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
172 Dr. Jaoor — On the Natives of Naga,
drical baaket^ and is killed when it grows too big for this habi-
tation. The pigs of the natives are too disgusting in their
habits to be eaten by Europeans.
The province exports about twice as much rice as it consumes.
This is sent chiefly to the western provinces of Albay, which is
not fitted for the growth of rice^ but produces only abaca^ or
Indian hemp. A part goes to North Camarines, which is very
mountainous and not fertile.
The exports of the province consist principally of rice and
abaca, whilst the imports are limited to the few products intro-
duced by the Chinese merchants. Nearly all the traders are
Chinese ; but the total capital invested in their shops certainly
does not amount to 200,000 dollars. In other parts of the pro-
vince, there are no Chinese traders, and the inhabitants must
be supplied £rom Naga.
All the land belongs to the state, but is let out gratuitously
to any one who will cultivate it. The usufruct goes to the
children of the tenant, and only reverts when the land has hdn
unused for two years ; it is then at the disposal of the autho-
rities to grant it in favour of anyone else.
Each family possesses its own house. Usually it is built by
the young husband with the aid of his firiends. In many places
it does not cost more than four or five dollars. When neces-
sary, he can repair it himself, without expense, with no other
tool than his forest-knife {bolo), and no other materials than
bamboos, palm-leaves, and Spanish reeds.
A handsome house built of planks, for the family of a cabeza,
may cost about 100 dollars. The property of such a family,
including fixtures, furniture, ornaments, &c., may be worth from
100 to 1000 dollars; some are valued at even 10,000, and the
richest in the whole province is estimated at 40,000.
The Indian eats three meals daily,— one at 7 o'clock in
the morning, another at 2 in the afternoon, and the third at 7
or 8 in the evening. The strongest workmen will consume at
each meal a chupa of rice, but ordinary individuals only half a
chupa at breakfast, an entire chupa at mid-day, and half a chupa
in the evening; making in all two chupas^. The average
retail price is 3 cuartos for 2 chupasf.
For each meal the requisite quantity of rice is pounded in a
wooden mortar by a woman. The rice is only half cooked, at
least according to our notions ; but it appears that this is always
the case where rice forms an essential article of diet.
For seasoning the Indian uses salt and a good deal of Spanish
pepper {Capsicum) , which is grown everywhere. His luxuries are
• 8 chupsfisd litres. t 160 cuartossl doUar.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
in Luzon, Philippine Islands. 173
buyo and cigars. A dgar costs 1 cuarto, and a buyo 0*1 cuarto.
Buyo is the fonn in which betel is used in the Philippines. A
leaf of betel-pepper {Chavica betel) is spread over with lime^ and
rolled together from both sides towards the middle^ one end of
the roll being stuck into the other so as to form a ring, in which
is inserted a flat piece of areca-nut of corresponding size. The
cigars are rarely used for smoking^ but are cut into pieces and
chewed with the buyo. Wom^n also consume both tobacco and
buyo^ but usually only to a very moderate extent. They do not
colour the teeth blacky as the Malays do^ but the young and
handsome women constantly polish them with the husk of the
areca-nut^ the fibres of which lie parallel and close together^ so
as to form, on perpendicular section, an excellent tooth-brush.
They wash several times daily, and in cleanliness far excel the
great majority of Europeans*.
Probably every Indian keeps a fighting-cock, and even if he
has nothing to eat he manages to find money enough for this.
An earthen vessel, costing about three or four cuartos, serves
for all purposes of cooking. The poor have no other vessel, but
the richer have cast-iron pans and earthen vessels with covers.
The fire-place in a small house consists of a flat box, often an
old cigar-box, filled with sand and containing three stones to
serve as a tripod; but in the larger houses the fire-place has
more the form of a bedstead. In small households the water
is stored in stout bamboos. Everybody possesses a bolo, or
forest-knife — a imiversal instrument, which the Indian carries
in a wooden sheath of his own make, and slings round his waist
by a cord made of some bast-fibres carelessly twisted together.
A rice-mortar (a hollowed wooden block) and a grinder, to-
gether with a basket, form all the household implements of a
poor family. Sometimes there is a large snail-shell, with a
rush-wick, to serve as a lamp.
The wages of an ordinary labourer for working from 6 to 12
o^dock and from 2 to 6, is 1 real and no food. The women
usually do no field-work ; but they plant-out the rice and help
to get it in, and in both these cases they have the same wages
as men would receive. Workers in wood and stone earn 1^
real per day.
In the old pfieblos there are schools. The teachers are paid
by the Government, and usually receive 2 dollars per month,
* In my ' Reiseakizzen ' (p. 120) I have remarked that in the Malay Archi-
pelago Eoropeans are never troubled with the vermin of the natives. This is
especially the case in the Philippines, where the natives (particularly the
women) although they take neat care with their hair, are often infested,
while the Spaniards, althougn offcen neglectful, are probably never thus
visited.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
174 Dr. Jaoor — On the Natives ofNaga.
without either board or lodging. In lai^er pueblos the wages
rise to 3^ dollars ; but an assistant has to be paid out of this
sum. Beading and writing are taught; copies are set in
Spanish^ and the teacher is supposed to speak only Spanish to
his scholars^ but he often does not understand it himself:
hence Spanish is known almost only to those Indians who have
lived in the service of Europeans.
On an average one-half of the children go to school^ com-
monly from seven to ten years of age ; they learn to read, and
a few also to write a little, but they soon forget it. Only those
who afterwards serve as clerks can write freely. In some parts
the boys and girls are not allowed to attend the same school,
and in such cases a female teacher is engaged at a salary of
1 dollar per month.
Women rarely marry before fourteen years of age. Twelve
years is the lowest limit fixed by law. In the register of the
church of Folangui, in Albay, I found it recorded that on the
28th January 1837, marriage was celebrated between an Indian
and a female Indian of eleven years and six days, who bore the
ominous name of '^ Hilaria Concepcion.^' This was done by
licence of the bishop, as the girl was pregnant, but had not
reached the legal age for marriage. The parents died in 1857
of an epidemic disease, but a son is still living.
In the same register I found a marriage recorded between an
Indian of twenty-eight and an Indian woman of twelve years.
The women are in general well treated, and do only Ught
work, such as sewing, weaving, and household duties. All the
heavy work, with the exception of grinding rice, is performed
by men.
Women remain fruitful until the fortieth year. Two women,
known to me, have borne each fifteen children. Five or six
births are conmion.
The first excrements of a new-bom babe are carefully pre-
served, and imder the name of triaca {theriacum) are regarded
as a universal remedy against the bite of snakes and mad dogs.
It is applied to the wound, and is also taken internally.
A large number of children die in the first two weeks after
birth. There are no statLstical data ; but one of the first doctors
in Manilla is of opinion that at least on^-fifth, if not indeed a
fourth, die at that period. According to him, the cause is to be
attributed to the great impurity of the air, for every opening in
the house is stopped up to exclude draught, for fear of injury to
the mother.
Formerly this was done to exclude Patiana, an evil spirit
who worked mischief to the woman and sought to hinder
delivery. The custom is still retained, and probably the super-
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Major Frederick Millinoen — On the Koofds. 175
stition yet lingers with many^ although they do not confess it ;
and where this belief has died away the fear of catching cold
has been introduced as a new cause for the retention of an old
custom.
The disease of mimicking^ called in Java sakU-latar, occurs
also here^ and is termed mali-mali. In Java it is supposed by
many to be merely an imposition, and that those who pretend
to be thus afiict^ find it advantageous to deceiye the newly
settled Europeans. Here, however, I observed an example
which could certainly not be regarded as an imposition. Cases
of amok are also foimd in the Philippines.
It is one of the greatest offences to cry out to a native when
he is asleep, or to awaken him quickly. They arouse one
another, if necessary, with the greatest caution, and very gently.
Among the Juinguianes, in North Luzon, the greatest of all
curses is — " May you die sleeping ! ''*
XXI. On the KooRDs.
By Major Frederick Millingen, F.B.G.S.
(Read December 2l8t, 1869.)
Laying aside traditions and opinions which are beyond the reach
of discussion, we shall find that the races mentioned in early
history as being the inhabitants of the high plateau of Armenia
are the Armenians, the Karduks, and the Chaldeans. Xenophon,
the earliest writer whose authentic description of that region
has been transmitted to us, relates, in his ^ Retreat of. the Ten
Thousand,' how he entered the mountainous country occupied by
the warlike Karduks. That the Karduks of that period are
the ancestors of the race known in our days by the name of
Koords, is an opinion universally adopted. If the difference
etisting between the modem and the ancient name could be
considered as a reason strong enough to justij^ some objection
on this point, an inquiry into the way in which the Koords are
called by their Asiatic neighbours, as well as by themselves, will
serve to put this question b^ond doubt. Though the Turkish
and Persian way of pronouncing and writing the name '^ Koord **
is almost similar to the one adopted by western nations, we shall
yet find that the Arabs, who have generally shown themselves
more accurate in historical, ethnological, and literary questions,
have kept that name under a form much more like to the old
Greek wa^ of spelling it, — Kart in the singular and Ekrai in the
plural being the Arabic name for Koord or Koords. As for
their own way of calling themselves, it is different from any
* Informe sobre el Estado de las fUipinas, i. 14.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
176 Major Fredbbick Millinoen — On the Hoards,
other^ although it possesses the Kart sound, — ^their national de-
nomination being Kartmantche. I am at a loss to explain the
meaning oimantche placed at the end.
The Koords belong to the Aryan race, and have a language of
their own, independent of either Armenian, Persian, or Turkish.
Persian, however, is very much mixed up in their idioms, — ^a re-
sult which is due to their close contact with a race endowed
with a higher civilization. The peculiarities which I have re-
marked in the Koordish idiom are the following : — ^a predilection
on the part of the Koords to shorten and contract proper names,
a liberty which a Turk will never take ; so that, instead of say-
ing '' Mehemet '' in esienso, the Koord will say Mukho, Hasso
likewise serves instead of Hassam, Memo instead of Mahmud,
and so on. Another peculiarity is the Italian-like o termination
which prevails in the Koordish idiom, as seen in the above-quoted
names. The negative no is, I think, more extraordinary still,
as the negative employed by other Oriental nations is totally
different. The Koordish language contains almost as many
dialects as there are tribes ; and it often happens that one tribe
does not understand another. The Koords of Dersim-dagh are
not able to understand those of Beyazid or Suleimanieh, and
vice versd.
The great intercourse which the Koords have with the Persians
not only makes them familiar with the language and customs of
Persia, out has led them to adopt the same creed, the Koords
being Shiahs like the Persians, and not Sunnites as their Os-
manli masters.
The character of the Koordish race partakes, in many of its
principal features, of those peculiarities which are general with
nomads at large. Compelled to rove through vast tracts of ter-
ritory in search of pasturage or for marauding and plunder, the
Koord acquires an enterprising instinct with a spirit of restless-
ness, acuteness, cunning, and rapacity. In constant strife with
their neighbours or with each other, they are essentially a war-
like people, ever ready to attack or to meet an enemy. Unlike
the chivalrous Arab, however, the Koord does not hesitate to
stain his hands with the blood of the guest who has taken
shelter under the folds of his tent.
Brigandage is systematically established throughout Koordis-
tan, and is conducted in two ways, — namely, by means of sudden
attacks on caravans and travellers, and by the more regular plan
of forced contributions. The attacks on caravans can only be
avoided by a display of strength. Commercial travellers are
perhaps the only people who traverse Koordistan with little fear
of being hurt, since it is to the interest of the Koord to protect
them.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
Major Frederick Millingen — On the Koords, 177
Forced contributions and ransoms belong to the regular form
of brigandage. Whenever a chief is in want of money, or finds
that he is running short of provisions, he at once has recourse
to a ransom or contribution imposed on the Armenian vil-
lages of the neighbourhood. Besides these ransoms on a
large scale, there exists a kind of cpntribution on a smaller
scale which every Koord thinks himself entitled to impose
whenever he finds it convenient. This consists of visits paid
by the Koords to the peaceful inhabitants of the towns in
order to request them to take upon themselves the trouble
and cost of feeding their horses or buflFaloes during the whole
of the winter season. The inhabitants have no course but
that of complying with this peremptory request, as they would
otherwise run the risk of seeing their crops and plantations
destroyed.
Amongst the many acts of brigandage of which Koords are
guilty, a peculiar kind of highway-robbery must here be noted,
the parallel of which has probably never been heard. The
culprits are in this case young women, who set out on plunder-
ing excursions. A troup of fair bandits takes up a station
at the side of the road, and there patiently waits for the arrival
of the doomed traveller; as soon as the vedettes announce
his approach, the fair troup starts off to meet the traveller,
giving him the welcome with their dances. The traveller is
compelled to stop, as a matter of course ; and the maids then
politely request him to alight from his horse. No sooner has
the bewildered victim, unconscious of his fate, put foot on the
ground, than he finds himself at close quarters with the whole
troup, and is immediately stripped of all he has on his back.
Then begins a series of dances and fascinating gestures in the
style of those performed by the maids of the Lupercalic era, the
object of which is to make the unfortunate traveller loose his
reason and self-control. An attempt, however, on the part of
the victim to reciprocate with the charms of his fair tyrants be-
comes instantly fatal.
These dances and the flagellations, which serve as entr^actes,
are repeated several times, until the sufferer extenuated, with his
limbs bleeding, is nearly fainting. Then the female troup de-
cides on dragging the wretched traveller before a Court of
Matrons, which holds its sittings somewhere in the neighbour-
hood. Once there, a case for attempting a certain transgression
is brought against the pretended culprit, who not only receives a
good dose of upbraiding, but is also condemned to pay the fine
stipulated by the court. This fact might, for the extravagance
of its nature, excite some doubts as to its accuracy ; I have,
however, ventured to state it on the testimony of several indivi-
Digitized by VjOOy IC
178 Major Frederick Millinoen — On the Koords.
duals who have happened to pass through the territory of the
Bilbash tribe^ whose women are addict^ to this singular kind
of highway-robbery. I may add that these statements are sup-
ported by one of my colleagues of the Staff, Major Daud £ffendi>
who has resided a long time in the province of Kerkuh^ of
which the Bilbash tribe is a dependency.
Koordistan is a bare country, where pasturage is the only
resource which can furnish its inhabitants with the means of
subsistence. The flock provides the Koord with the milk, the
butter, and the djadjk (cheese) which form the principal ingre-
dients of his metds. It is upon the women that the duty de-
volves of manufacturing the butter and the djadjk. Sour milk
and yatart are also amongst the principal ingredients of the
Koordish kitchen.
The Koord seldom eats of the flesh of his flock ; indeed few
Koords eat meat more than three or four times during the year.
The produce of the flock is too valuable; for it constitutes
the wealth of the Koord, who is therefore extremely parsimo-
nious in squandering it for the satisfaction of his own appetite.
The wealthy chiefs form an exception to the general rule, their
table being abundantly provided with the best of meat prepared
in various ways. The wheat necessary for subsistence is bought
by the Koords in the markets of the country, or is imported
from Persia. After having reduced it to the state of flour by
means of water-mills, the women make with it a very thin paste,
which is baked in a few minutes inside the tandur. Wheat
nicely cleaned and broken into fragments is used to make the
pt/a/ called bulffur-pilaf, so as to distinguish it from the ordinary
pilaf made of rice ; this dish forms the principal daily food
of the Koords.
In Koordistan men do literally nothing; the duties of
shepherd and vedette once fulfilled, they spend their time in
gossiping, smoking, intriguing, plotting, and occasionally in
marauding expeditions, or in attacking one another. Fiul of
vanity, they attach great importance to appearance, and highly
prize a fanciful costume. Bed morocco boots and a red mantle
form the regimental outfit of a warrior. Persian and Kashmir
shawls are articles to which every chief aspires; they are used
as turbans, or they are twisted round the waist.
The costumes worn by the men in this part of Koordistan
are of three sorts ; the first is composed of a kind of morning
gown, and a long gown, called djupeh^ worn above ; this dress,
common all through the east, is worn by the Koords in doors,
and while en nigligi under the tent. The second costume con-
sists of a voluminous pair of blue breeches, a small gown, the
scarlet mantle, together with its lower appendix the red boots;
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Major Frederick Millinoen — On the Koords. 179
this isj strictly speakings a warrior's winter costume. The third
is by far the most picturesque of all^ and is exclusively Koor-
disb ; this dress is composed of a short scarlet jacket with its
Fig. 10. Costume of Koords*.
hanging sleeves^ a pair of trousers large and loose, offering a
garb and ease the effect of which is difficult to convey by mere
words. The usual red boots and the big turban, around which a
variety of coloured handkerchiefs are careAilly twisted, complete
this elegant costume worn by the Koordish warriors during the
hot season. Few costumes are more suited to the service of
light cavalry than this ; it possesses the required qualities of ease,
elegance, and of presenting a martial aspect.
The arms used by the Koords are these : — as a defensive arm
the shield made of elephant-, rhinoceros-, or buffalo-skin. This
shield is small, having a diameter of only 20 inches ; externally
it is covered with several rows of brass buttons, which gradually
rise in thickness from the circumference to the centre. The
offensive arms are a short carabine with a wide open muzzle of
a very old model, an old flint pistol, and scimitar of the Persian
manufacture of Khorasan; some carry also a small crooked
Persian dagger {hantcher) . The best of their arms is the lance,
in the handling of which the Koords excel. The Koordish lance
* From Major Millingen's < Wild Life among the Koords/ by permission
of Messrs. Hurst and Blackett.
Digitized b^GoOgle
180 Major Frederick Mtllinoen — On the Koards.
is made of bamboo imported irom India by Persian merchants ;
the bamboo having seven knots is considered to be the best ; its
length is four yards and a half; the point is of good steel,
and remains almost concealed inside a baU made of long black
horse-hair. The object of this ball is to frighten the horses of
the enemy, and to conceal the deadly weapon.
The Koordish race, both men and women, are remarkably
handsome, being far superior in this respect to the Tatar-Turks
or to those of Constantinople ; they are tall, powerfully built,
and muscular. It is strange that among the Koords a variety
of complexions is to be found ; although a dark complexion with
black eyes and black hair is predominant, yet light hair and
blue eyes are also to be met with ; chestnut is not uncommon.
One peculiar feature is the fire and the power with which their
optic organs are endowed. Though I have not visited the inde-
pendent district situated in the centre of the Taurus chain (a
region known to the Turks under the name of Dersim-dagh),
yet, from the statements made to me by my fellow officers, I
have ascertained that the Koordish race sheltered in that moun-
tainous country can be looked upon as a model of physical
beauty and power.
Amongst the Koords the women do every thing ; they pre-
pare the meal, wash, and milk and shear the flock ; they alone
are capable of weaving and dyeing the wool, and of knitting the
carpets, the blankets, the tents, and the other textile fabrics of
which the country boasts. I have seen women even grooming
and saddling their husbands' horses !
The women wear large oriental trousers {shalvar) tied at the
ankle, a small jacket, open in front and reaching below the
knees, and a voluminous turban in the Koordish fashion. This
costume, with its gay colours, displays to advantage their fiiU
round forms and sun-burnt features.
Koordish women are extremely moral, and their character
partakes of a masculine firmness and decision. This is refer-
able to the free intercourse between the sexes, which is of course
at variance with the Mussulman religion. A Koordish woman
is familiar with all the affairs, feuds, plans, and conspiracies of
her tribe ; indeed she is often the very soul and moving spirit
in such matters. As enterprising and enduring as the men,
the women here are always on the alert and ready to jump into
the saddle.
In their ideas, manners, and habits, the Koords are a rough
and half-savage people; their knowledge and ideas are very
limited, and they are even destitute of those national traditions
which are handed down from generation to generation. It is
worthy of note that the Koords have no ancient traditions of
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Major Frepe&ick Millinoen — On the Koords. 181
their own, and anecdotes relating to Persian heroes and Shahs
constitute their entire stock of historic lore. The Koords do
not seem to have ever taken much interest in Turkish history,
and it is unquestionable that they find themselves much more at
home with the Persians than with the Turks.
Buffoonery and jokes of all sorts are much in favour amongst
the Koords, every chief having some buffoon, whose duty it is
to keep the company merry.
Amusements are not much in vogue, the inventive powers of
this people being as deficient in this direction as in others.
Wrestling, stone-throwing, tournaments, dances, and buffalo-
fights are their chief sports ; chess is also played.
To do the Koords justice it must, however, be admitted that
they are often frank enough to avow their own faults and short-
comings; they acknowledge themselves a rough and wild people
and therefore consider themselves entitled to forbearance.
One of the characteristics giving to the customs of the
Koords a certaui European type, is the funeral ceremony per-
formed in honour of a dead warrior or chieftain. On such an
occasion special invitations are sent to the chiefs of the friendly
tribes, and to all those who are related to the defunct by ties of
consanguinity. At the appointed hour, every one hastens to the
house whence the funeral procession is to start. A certain num-
ber of horsemen open the procession, performing before the
hearse a series of tournaments and evolutions ; while this goes
on at the head of the procession, the hearse is carried in the
middle on the shoulders of the relations and friends of the de-
ceased. Just behind the hearse his charger follows at a slow
step, carrying the empty saddle, the arms, and the war-costume
of his late master. The procession is closed by a number of
warriors presenting an imposing mass of cavalry. The ladies,
relatives as well as friends of the deceased, wear on this occasion
black veils, as a sign of mourning ; at the moment the body
is taken out of the house the women begin to cry and shriek
wildly, while, in sign of grief, they rend their clothes and throw
handfuls of earth aud dust on their heads.
This funeral ceremony, which is a national institution with
the Koords, is the .more surprising on account of its being
utterly opposed to the principles of the Koran, as well as to the
prejudices of other Mussulman nations. According to them,
all men are reduced by death to the same level ; and hence no
honour is to be paid to any one after death, whatever may have
been his position while living.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
182 HowoRTH — On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades,
XXII. On the Wbsteely Drifting of Nomades^ from the Fifth
to the Nineteenth Century. By H. H. Howorth^ Esq. —
Part IV. The Circassians and Wliite Khazars.
(Part in. was published in this yolume^ pp. 83-06.)
By tracing back the various lines of migration^ we have at
length succeeded in eliminating firom the ethnography of Eu-
rope and Southern Asia a most perplexing and, in many respects,
preponderating element. We have pushed back the Turks be-
yond the Volga and the Oxus. Their history in that further
region, which forms the typical Turkestan, I hope to trace out
in a future paper. At present I must commence to make good
my rash proposition, that the Petchenegs were the first Turks
that crossed the Volga. I call it rash, because it is directly at
issue with the conclusions of Dr. Latham, the most patient and
careful of English ethnologists, and because it involves a posi-
tion which, so far as I know, is entirely new.
The northern flanks of the Caucasus form, in my opinion, one
of the best ethnological barometers that we possess. Its many
races are the waifs and strays of invasions that have swept by
and through the great marching-ground of all western invaiders,
the Steppes north of the Caspian Sea and the Euxine. Each
body of invaders who has occupied these plains has left a por-
tion of its race behind, which remnants have been pressed for-
ward into the mountains by succeeding invaders. Thus if we
peel the mountains, as it were, and remove the successive layers
of population that occupy them, we shall have a series represent-
ing, not unfaithfully, the various tribes and races which have
occupied Southern Russia.
According to Mayoudi, when the Gusses crossed the Volga,
they entered the land of Eazaria. The Khazars, in the pages
of Byzantine, Arabian, and Russian authorities, were the pre-
cursors of the Gusses, or Comans, and the Petchenegs. Our
inquiry therefore commences with the Khazars. Who were the
Khazars ? One mistake by one author may divert the reasoning
on a whole science into a vicious and wrong channel. No better
example of this fact can be chosen than the case of the Khazars.
Ebn Haoucal's Geography, which was written in 976-7, was
translated into EngUsh by Sir Wm. Ouseley. His statements
about the Khazari, with whom he was contemporary, are of
course of the highest value. Sir Wm. Ouseley has unfortu-
nately mistranslated the most important passage, and his mis-
translation has been followed by English inquirers. Long ago,
the greatest authority on this branch of Arabian literature,
Fraehn, in his " De Chasans, Excerpta ex scriptoribus Arabids,''
published in the Memoirs of the St. Petersbui^ Academy, called
Digitized by LjOOQIC
from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 183
attention to and corrected this mistake; and the question has
been ably discussed by Vivien St. Martin. There can no longer
be the slightest doubt that Sir Wm. Ouseley gave the exact
reverse of the meaning of the passage. Ebn Haoucal says the
Khazars differed entirely in their language from the Turks.
Ouseley made him say they were like the Turks in language.
The term Turk is used by Ebn Haoucal in a more limited sense
than by many of his Byzantine and Arabian contemporaries^
who apply it indiscriminately to the Hungarians, Bulgarians,
and to all the various Nomades of the Steppes, in an almost
equivalent manner with the ancient term Scyth. Ahmed ben
Fozlan also says that the Khazar tongue differs from the Persian
and Turk. The Khazars, as we shall presently see, differed
from the Turks entirely in their phyaiqtie, their religion, and
their manners, as they did, according to Ebn Haoucal, in their
more important ethnological differentue, as in their language.
If they were not Turks, what were they? I cannot believe that
a race, so very important as they were for three centuries, should
have been wiped out without leaving a trace behind. Let us
appeal, experimentally only, to our ethnological barometer, the
flanks of the Caucasus.
In a previous paper I have shown that the Nogays, and other
so-called Tartar hordes of the Kuban and the Caucasus, are the
descendants of the Petchenegs and Gusses. If we remove the
Nogays, therefore, from our map, we shall perhaps meet with
some clue. The layer of population which lies immediately
beyond the Tartars is that of the Circassians. What, then, is
the history of the Circassians ? This question involves a very
difficult answer, if we are to be guided by orthodox text-books.
It is not denied that the Circassians are, and have been, as long
as tradition reaches back, the masters and leaders of the Cau-
casian Tartars, of the Ossetes, and of their other neighbours,
supplying the princely and governing caste to all the northern
Caucasus. Yet we are taught to believe that these Circassians
have no history, properly so called, and that we must be content
to trace them, perhaps, in the Zychians &c. of the Greek writers.
I cannot believe such a position to be well founded. Let us
trace them back in some detail. First, we must limit the term
Tscherkessian, or Circassian, to the inhabitants of the two Ka-
bardahs, and the Circassians proper of the moimtains, described
in detail by Klaproth, under their various tribal names of Bes-
lenie, Muchosch, Abasech, Kemurqudhe, or Tenurgoi, Hatti-
qu&he Attigoi, or Hattukai, Bsheduch, Schapschik, Shana, or
Shani, and Schegakeh. I exclude entirely the Abassians, or
Abkhassians, classed, I know not on what authority, by Dr.
Latham with the Circassians, but most sharply distinguished
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
184 HowoBTH — On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades,
from them by Klaproth. These latter have Circassian princes^
and have a few customs and words in common with their mas-
ters, otherwise they are very distinct, and are really the rem-
nants of the occupants of the Circassian area before the arrival
of the Circassians.
Having thus limited the name Circassian to the Kabardiens
and the Circassians proper of the mountains, let us turn to their
history. First> the Kabardiens; the name is as old as the days
of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, as applied to a large division of
the Circassian nation. As applied to the district now occupied
by Kabardiens, it is much more recent. Their ancient seats
were among the Beschtau, or Five Mountains, the most northern
spurs of the Caucasus, when in the sixteenth century, in the
quaint language of Klaproth's translator, " The Tscherkessians,
weary of everlasting war, at length aljandoned the Beschtau, or
the Five Mountains, and removed nearer to the Terek, where
they settled on the river Baksan, in the Russian territory. They
had then at their head two princes, the brothers Kabarty-Bek,
who, quarrelling on account of this change of abode, parted, and
divided the Tscherkessian nation between them. The elder
remained on the river Baksan, but the younger, with his fol-
lowers, proceeded to the Terek, and thence afterwards arose the
division of their country into the Great and Little Kabardah.
The princes and usdens (nobles) of the nation professed Mo-
hammedanism, but the mass of the people and the peasants
were Christians of the Greek persuasion, and had churches and
orthodox priests among them.^' This story of Klaproth's^
obtained by him apparently from the Count Potocki, is so
reasonable, and happened within such a recent period, that
it may well be accepted. It is confirmed by the traditions of
the Basians, who relate that they occupied the Kabardahs be-
fore the Circassians, and were driven into the mountains on the
arrival of the latter. The subsequent history of the Kabar-
diens is easily accessible ; it would not assist us in our present
inquiry.
Jehosaphat Barbaro, the Venetian ambassador to the Persian
court in 1474, calls the present Kabardah by that name,
according to Klaprotb. This somewhat antedates the arrivid
of the Kabardiens. It may be a mistake of Barbaro ; for in
1497, in a map made by Fredutio of Ancona, found in the library
of Wolfenbuttel, the name Cabardi stands somewhat west of the
present Tajanrog. Here it is also found nearly two centuries
earlier (about 1312) in some manuscript maps preserved at
Vienna; in the latter it is spelt Cabari. The upper part of
the river Belbek in the Crimea is known as the Kabarda.
Lastly, Constantine Porphyrogenitus places the Cabari on an
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
frwa the fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 185
island at the mouth of the Kuban. So much for the Kabar-
diens.
Since the Russian extension into the Caucasus, the Circas-
sians of the mountains have been driven much ftirther to the
south. Many of their tribes lived formerly on the Kuban. The
island of Thaman and the whole coast of the Black Sea, as far
as Anapa, was in their possession. They then used to go in
numerous caravans to the lakes between Kislar and Astrachan
to fetch salt. Georgio Interiano, who wrote in the fifteenth
century, places their northern limit at the Don. We have
already said that a river in the Crimea is called Kabarda.
In that peninsula, situated between the rivers Katscha and
Belbek, is a tract known as Tscherkess-TUs, or the Plain of the
Tscherkessians ; there are also the ruins of a castle, called by the
Tartars Tscherkess-kjennan. It is well known that the capi-
tal of the Cossacks of the Ukraine was known as Tscherkesh,
a name also adopted by the Cossacks of the Don for their capi-
tal. In the Russian annals the Cossacks are frequently referred
to under the name Tscherkessians. In 1500 Agatscherkess is
named as a chief of the Azof Cossacks. Lastly, and perhaps
most important of all, the Nogays still call the whole country
between Kabardah and the Katscha, Therkestus [vide Pallas, i.
892) . All these facts show how wide-spread and important the
Tscherkessian name was in southern Russia and the plains of
the Kuban, before the Mongol supremacy. But our evidence
is not yet finished. The name Tscherkess has been held by
BJaproth to be a Turk gloss, compounded of "Tcher,'' a
road, and " Kesmek,'* to cut oflT, meaning a cutter-oflF of roads,
i. e, a brigand. Whether this be so or not, I cannot look upon
the name Tscherkess as an ancient one in the Causasus, nor can
I see any evidence, save a similarity of sound, for identifying it
with the Kerkites of the ancients. To the Ossetes and Min-
grelians, the Tscherkessians are known as Kassack, and the
Ossetes have a tradition that the Kabardiens were so called
before the emigratien from the North. We thus get an explan-
ation of the term Kasachia of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.
We also get the origin of the Cossack name. The Cossacks
(although of Polish and Russian descent), and more especiaUy
the Cossacks of the Don, have many customs in common with
the Circassians, and succeeded to the name as well as policy of
their predecessors, the Kassacks, or, as they are called by Nes-
tor, the Kassogi. The name Kassack appears for the first time
in Cons. Por. and had apparently very limited use. We must
search for the Tscherkessians under some other name if we are
to find them in the pages of the earlier Byzantines and the Arab
geographers. With both these latter the name Khazar is by far
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
186 HowoRTH — On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades^
the most important in these regions, in the eighth and two fol*
lowing centuries. The Caspian was known as the Chazaiian
Sea; the plains west of the Volga as the land of Khazaria,
while the same name was more particularly applied to the Cri-
mea. As the name Khazar gradually disappears^ the name
Tscherkessian predominates. They both occupied the same
area, and we are led to the inevitable result that they were the
same people under two names; the more so, as, especially in
the case of the Crimea, the Circassians are the only race we
know whose early history is compatible with their being the de-
scendants of the Khazars, all the Turkish tribes being excluded
from such a claim, as we showed in starting. This very rea-
sonable position is abundantly corroborated by other evidence.
Thus the Circassians have a tradition that they were formerly
the masters of the Nogays ; the Nogays, as we have shown in
another paper, are chiefly the descendants of the Comans or
Gusses. In the accounts we have of the earlier struggles of
the Comans, we generally find them fighting in alliance with
the Khazars. With the Khazars they invaded the Russian and
Petchenegian territory. When Klaproth went to the Caucasus
he was furnished with a long list of names of the Polowzian
or Comanian invaders of Russia, preserved in the chronicles.
They were always the names of leaders or chieftains : these
names had been a puzzle to previous inquirers. They were
clearly not Turkish ; no such names are found among the No-
gay hordes. Klaproth, to whose pages I refer the cr^ulous for
proofs, found that with very few exceptions these same names
are still the names of princely families in Circassia, and that
they are confined to the Circassians. This chain of argument
seems to me to be complete, nor could a more crucial test be
chosen. My only wonder is that Klaproth never fell upon the
notion that the Khazars were the ancestors of the Circassians :
the more so, as the fact is attested by still clearer evidence if
need be, namely, the testimony of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
who mentions the Cabari as one of the tribes of the Khazars,
and even as the chief tribe, to which the predominance was wil-
lingly allowed. These Cabari can be no others than the Kabardi
and Kabari of later writers.
The only vestige remaining of the language of the Khazars, in
the shape of a gloss, is the name of their capital, Sarkel, which,
according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, means the ''white
dwelling.'^ Sarghili in Hungarian would mean '' yellow place.''
Klaproth says that in the Yogul dialect and in western Siberian,
sar, sarni, somi, and sairan mean '' white.'' In many Samoyede
compounds the same word is found, as syr, sirr, and sin.
Among them a house is called kell, kella, kuel, koual, kal ; among
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 187
the Tchuvafih, kil. The significance of this derivation will
appear in a fhture paper.
The Arab geographers Ebn el Ethir and Schems-ud-din re-
spectivelj connect the Khazars with the Georgians and the
Armenians. This sufficiently distinguishes them from the Turks,
and is no bad guess at some of their superficial relations, if they
were Circassians. That the Khazars were very distinct from the
Turks physically is perhaps best proved by the fact that the Rus-
sian princes and the Byzantine grandees chose their wives (one of
whom was the mother of Leo the Khazar, who succeeded to the
imperial throne, in 758) from among them ; and so common was
this practice, that Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the Chesterfield
of his day, severely warned his son against such a pernicious
example. Here, again, we are reminded of the popularity of
Circassian beauties even in our own day, and can only credu-
lously smile when we find the Khazar brides identified with the
ancestors of the repulsively ugly Nogay women.
This accumulation of facts seems to me overwhelming. On
the other side we have only the dictum of Zeuss, supported by
the statement that the titles in use among the Khazars, such as
Bee or Beg, Khan or Khacan, &c., are Turkish. Now Bee or
Beg is unquestionably found as a particle in Circassian names.
Kiiacan or Khan is a title common to the Bulgarians, Avares, and
Russians, and is the same as the Norse Hacon. Nor do I know
of a tittle of evidence for making them peculiarly Turkish glosses.
That the Khazars had no Turkish blood in them I will no
more affirm than I would make the same assertion of the Circas-
sians. The Khazars were constantly in alliance with the Turkish
Ousses, in the forays made by the latter upon the Russians and
the Petchenegs ; and further, the body-guards of the Khazarian
princes were formed, as those of the Arab emirs of Transoxiana
were, of Turkish mercenaries. In the case of the Khazars these
were known as Larssiyes, a name very ingeniously compared by
lyOhsson with Alars, a tribe of the Kaptchaks, according to
Schems-ud-din. These Turks must in both cases have corrupted
the language and race materially. But such corruptions can no
more make either Khazars or Circassians Turks than Anglo-
Saxon corruptions make North Wales into a German-speaking
province.
The name Khazar has received many etymologies. Strahlen-
berg made it identical with the Hungarian Huzzar or Hussar.
I think it very probable the latter may be derived from the
former^ Chazar in Slave means an emigrant, according to Bo-
hucz. The Persians called all the Sunnites, or followers of Ali,
Chadshars ; the term Chadshar, therefore, with them is equiva-
lent to that of heretic with us, and Klaproth derives from it the
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
188 HowoBTH — On the Westerly Drifting of NomadeSj
German term for heretic, " Ketzer/' The Lesgs call the Jews
Ghusar, which is their way of pronouncing Khazar. Ouseley
translates Khazrians by Christians. The Chinese mention a
western people called Kosa. Vivien St. Martin connects them
with the Katiars of Herodotus and the Cotieri of Pliny, Scythian
tribes. Whatever the value of these suggestions, it is more to
our purpose to know that the Khazars were divided into two
sections by the Arabian geographers, — the Black Khazars and
the White Khazars, distinguished by very marked peculiarities,
the former situated to the north of the latter. These divisions
correspond, as Zeuss, Schlsetzer, and Thunmann have already
pointed out, to the Black and White Ughres of Nestor, the
former of whom were the Hungarians or Magyars. They cor-
respond also, as I believe, to the Black and White Huns of other
writers. The White Huns, or Epthalites, of Priscus (on whom
Vivien St. Martin has written an elaborate essay, which I have
not been able to procure) were, as is well known, the invaders who
overran Transoxiana about the sixth century, and formed a consi-
derable power there. They were, I believe, the Khazars, who at
a later date (819-820) were assisted by the Khorasmiens against
the Turks of Khorassan, and converted by them to Islamism, as
related by D'Ohsson from £bn el Ethir. This identification is
very important. These White Huns must have come from the
Khirghiz desert. Even Dr. Latham, whose Turcophobia is so pro-
nounced, allows that the Khirgises are, in name and in many
respects, other than Turks, though their language is unquestion-
ably Turkish. I believe with him that Khirgis, a mere form of
the ancient Kergis or Kerkis, is the same word as Circassian or
Tscherkessian ; the more so, as the Khirgises, like the Tscher-
kessians, are known as Keseks or Kassaks. I believe also that
the almost simultaneous invasion of Transoxiana and Europe by
the Khazars was a consequence of their bfsing driven out of their
native country by Turkish invaders. That native country called
Bersilia by Theophanes and others, I can find no room for any-
where, except in the ELhirgiz steppe, where it is actually placed
by Moses of Chorene {vide infrh) . Before this invasion the Kha-
zars occupied the country north and north-west of the Aral and
the Caspian, and the Turks were confined to more eastern and
northern regions, the Altai and the banks of the Irtysch.
We may now trace out rapidly the history of tibe Khazars,
for which the Arabs and the Byzantines have left us abundant
material. I shall not discuss the traditional and other early
invasions of the Caucasus by the Khazars mentioned ty the
Armenian historian Moses of Chorene, and in the Georgian
annals, because it is very doubtful if the exploits of some other
race have not been credited to the Khazars, and because we are
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
Jrfm the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 189
going somewhat beyond our subject (already involved enough)
in discussing them. I shall commence with Theophanes, who
is the first Byzantine who clearly mentions them^ and describes
the part they took in the invasion of Persia by Ueraclius in 626,
when they forced the Caspian Gates, and entered Adjerbaidjan.
This temporary foray was followed by a general invasion in the
reign of Constantine III., between the years 642-688, when
leaving the land of Berzilia, and driving the Bulgares before
them, they occupied the plains east of the Don, as far as the
Euxine. Batbaia, one of the princes of the Bulgares, was made
tributary. The country BerzUia has been a puzzle to most geo-
graphers. Herodotus names the Katiars with a people he calls
Basiliens (Royal Scyths). Fomponius Mela, Fliny, Strabo, and
Ptolemy all mention them. Moses of Chorene, in the fifth cen-
tury, says the Volga divides itself into sixty branches, on which
is settled the BarsUeen nation. We cannot be wrong in placing
Berzelia in the Kirghiz steppe, east of the Volga. The relations
of the Royal Scyths of Herodotus with the Circassians, through
the intermediate links of the White Huns of Claudian and the
Acatziri of other authors, is a promising subject, which we must
postpone to another occasion.
The Khazars speedily made tributary the neighbouring Russian
tribes, as appears from Nestor, and made incessant incursions
into Armenia and the other appanages of the caliphs south of
the Caucasus, which are detailed by D'Ohsson.
At the demand of the Khan of the Khazars, the emperor Theo-
philus sent engineers,.in 834, to build a fortress on the Don, as a
protection against thePetchenegs. This was the celebrated Sarkel,
known to the Russians as Belaia Wess. Lehrberg has fixed the
situation of Sarkel about seventy versts from the month of the
Don. Another of their towns was Phanagoria or Tamatarkha.
In the tenth century their territory was bounded on the south by
the Caspian and the last spurs of the Caucasus ; on the west by
the Don, which separated them from the Petchenegs, by the
Maeotis and the Cimmerian Bosphorus ; on the north by the Bul-
garians of Great Bulgaria on the Volga ; and on the east by the
Baschkirs and Gusses. Such are the limits fixed by D'Ohsson ;
but from the first invasion of the Khazars they must have occu-
pied the flat country of the Crimea, which was known as Kha-
zaria down to the times of the Genoese supremacy at Kafia.
The previous masters of the peninsula had been a remnant of
the Goths. These were now driven into the mountains, where
their stronghold was known as Kastron Gothia to the middle-
age writers. We are told that in the reign of Constantine the
sixth (780-797) the Gothic Bishop St. John Parthenites had to
flee for having attempted to detach the Goths from their subjection
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190 HowoRTH — On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades,
to the Khazars. South of theKuban^ the Alana long contested the
supremacy of the Khazars^ but like the Gusses and the Petchenegs
they had to submit to the superior energy and perhaps culture of
the KJiazars. The power of these latter seems to have been effec-
tually broken by the great Russian conqueror^ Sviatoslav^ who
overran their country and took their capital^ Sarkel. Thence-
forward the Gusses seem to have gradually gained ascendancy.
The Khazar nation was divided into two sections^ one in the
Crimea^ the other pressed beyond the Kuban ; the former retained
the old name^ came into constant contact with the Genoese,
and became the ancestors of the Kabardiens, whose emigration
we have already mentioned ; the latter began to appear in the
Russian annals under the new name of Kassogues, perhaps so
called from their chief tribe, for we are told by Constantine Por-
phyrogenitus that one of the tribes of the Khazars was called
Kosa. So late as 1226, the Khazars formed the van of the Geor-
gian armies in their invasions of Persia. We have thus traced
the history of this extraordinary race, and, I think, succeeded in
proving their connexion with the Circassians. In conclusion, I
would give, from Fraehn's ' Extracts de Chasaris,' a few particu-
lars about the manners and customs &c. of the Chazars.
Ibn Fozlan, who wrote about 921, a.d., Ibn Haukal, about
976-977, Ma90udi, about 943-947, and Yakout, about 1220, are
the chief authorities made use of by Fraehn. From these I
take the following : —
The Khazars differed entirely from the Turks, the Persians,
and the Russians in language. Their language was the same as
that of the Bulgarians. In their appearance they also differed
from the Turks. There were two kinds of Khazars : one, the
Black Khazars, of a dark colour almost approaching that of the
Indians ; the other of a fair complexion, and a handsome and
distinguished look (both kinds had black hair) . The idolaters
among the Khazars sold their children into slavery, and held it
right to make one another slaves ; the Christians and Jews among
them held this to be wrong. Their king was a Jew ; the Khazars
themselves were Mahommedans, Christians, and idolaters ; a few,
like their king, were Jews. The soldiers were chiefly Mahomme-
dans. According to Ibn el Asir they formerly followed the reli-
gion of their ancestors, i.e. idolatry. In the eighth century,
and during the reign of Haroun al Raschid, the Jews were ex-
pelled from the Greek empire ; finding the Khazars a tractable
race, they converted them, but some time after they became
subject to the Khorassan Turks. Having sought assistance from
the Chorezmiens against these Turks, the latter offered their
assistance conditionally on the Khazars embracing Islamism,
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from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. 191
\Fhich most of them did. Thus does the Arabian historian re-
late the conversion of the Kiiazars.
The king of the Khazari was called Khakan, or the great
Khakan ; he was a mere roi fainSant^ kept in rigid seclusion ; he
was shown on particular occasions^ and held more the position
of the Dalai Lama than that of an ordinary ruler. He had
twenty-five wives and sixty concubines. These wives and con-
cubines lived in a separate house^ known as the Kubba; each
one had a eunuch to wait on her.
When the king went out on horseback^ he was attended by
all his army, who kept off the vulgar gaze. His throne was a
rich erection of gold and hangings; his commands were held so
sacred that any one turning his back on any commission ap-
pointed by him had his head taken off. He was not allowed to
reign more than forty years, and when that limit was reached
he was strangled, or allowed to commit suicide. Occasionally,
in times of dire calamity, the king was required to sacrifice
himself for the people. The same story is told about him that
is told of Attila, and doubtless true in both cases, that on his
death a palace was built in the bed of a river, and his corpse
placed inside, and the river then diverted over it, those who
took part in the erection being aU killed. His unknown resting-
place they called Paradise. They held it safe from the attacks
of men or worms. The Khacan of the Khazars was held in high
esteem at Byzantium. He was addressed as the most noble and
illustrious Khacan of Khazaria. Letters addressed to him were
sealed with seals of the value of three solidi, while those on the
letters to the most illustrious European potentates were sealed
with seals of the value of two solidi only. We have said that
the Khacan of the Khazars was a mere roi faineant.
The real ruler (he who commanded the army, made peace and
war^ and was de facto the king, although nominally only a vica-
rial sovereign) was known as the Khacan-bh (Khacan bey ?), or
simply the Khan. Such was Ziebil, who assisted Heraclius
against the Persians. Next to him was one called Kender Cha-
kan ; next to him again, another, who bore the title of Tschaus-
chian. These great dignitaries alone had audience of the sacred
king, the great Khacan. The body-guard of the king consisted,
as we have said, of Turkish mercenaries, called Larssiy^s \ they
were 7000 in nimiber, all armed with bows and lances, equipped
in helmets, in cuirasses, and coats of mail (compare this with the
modem Circassian uniform) . Russians and pagan Slaves also
formed a portion of the Khazar army. Justice was administered
at Itil, the capital of Khazaria, by seven judges : two Mahomme-
dans administered the law of the Prophet, two Khazars that of the
Hebrews, and two Christians that of the Gospel. The seventh
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
192 Notes and Queries.
for the Slaves^ the Russians, and other pagans judged by the
law of nature. In difficult cases the latter consulted the Ma-
hometan cadhis^ and was ruled by their decisions. The king
was in constant communication with the judges.
Security of property and ample justice, we are told by the
Arab authorities, led to the settlement at Itil of a great number
of merchants, as many as 10,000. Copper and silver were both
found in Kliazaria; but its chief wealth consisted in its being
the entrepot of a vast trade : honey, wax, the roe of the stur-
geon, and furs, especially otter-skins, passed this way from
Russia and Bulgaria to Persia, and no doubt the products of
Persia and the East returned by the same route. Itil itself was
a large city of wooden houses, containing thiily mosques and a
large cathedral, with schools attached. Besides Itil, the Arabs
describe three other cities of the Khazars, — Belendscher, Semen-
der, and Chamlidsch ; the Georgian chronicles have several more;
but this will suffice. It will be seen, even from our meagre
relation, that the Khazars were a people highly advanced in the
arts, a people with an ancient civilization, with customs, such aa
those attaching to their king, pointing to an old history. We
have brought them from beyond the Volga, we must follow
them there on another occasion. It must suffice us now to
have proved them to have been the ancestors of the Circassians^
to have brought the latter isolated race into more close connex-
tion with the history of Eastern Europe, and to have somewhat
simplified the tangled subject of the ethnology of the Caucasus.
NOTES AlND QUERIES.
Meneam, — This people of cannibals, among whom Dr. Livingstone
in his last letter announced that he was about to take his course, and
whom be stated to be, on native authority, notorious cannibals, are
the Niam Niam or Nya Nyas, the people' in the western ranges of
the district of the Nile. Livingstone has either carried out that
intention, or, from fear of the Nya Nyas, he has soilght to return by
the course of the Couco, and may thus have exposed himself to the
misfortune alleged to nave befallen him. — ^Hini Clares.
Turkish " Know'^ and ** Soto,'* — In Turkish eofftioscere and scire
are distinguished, being respectively tanemaJc and hilmek. Sow and
Seto are represented by one verb, dikmek. — Hydb Clarke.
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Journ . Etlmo. SocVol.lL PLXVH
TMhit
AVMARA MAN
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
THE JOURNAL
OF THIS
ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY OE LONDON.
XXIII. On the Aymara Indians of Bolivia and Peru.
By David Forbes, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c.*
(Read June 2lBt, 1870).
The country inhabited by the Aymara race of Indians is nearly
equally divided between the two South- American republics of
Bolivia and Peru, forming the most northern or, rather, north-
western part of Bolivia and the southernmost of Peru.
From north to south it extends from about 15° to 20® of south
latitude ; but from east to west it is more diflScult to define its
limits with any approach to exactitude, owing to the existence
of several outlying colonies of these Indians; the Aymara
country proper, however, may be regarded as boimded by the
two great chains of mountains called by the Spaniards the Cor-
dilleras de la Costa, or Coast Andes, and the Cordilleras de los
Andes, or High Andes, which in this part of South America
traverse somewhat obliquely the provinces of Peru and Bolivia,
situated between the lon^tudes 67* and 72^ west of Greenwich.
The district itself, now only sparsely, but in former times much
more thickly populated by these Indians, may be estimated as
about 300 English geographical miles in length, with a breadth
of about 150 miles, and consequently represents a superficial
area of about 45,000 square miles.
The whole of this country is situated at a great elevation, and
may be looked upon as an extensive table-land, having a mini-
mum altitude of 10,000 feet, above which again rise several
more or less parallel north and south mountain ridges, whose
snowy peaks frequently attain double that height, or more than
20,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean ; amongst these might be
mentioned the volcanic cones of Sajama and Tacora, in the
• [Special circumstances connected with this paper have led to iU early
publication. — Sub-Ed.]
VOL. II.
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
194 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
western range, which, upon measurement, were found to be
23,014 and 22,687 feet, as also the Silurian moipitains of U-
lampu (Sorata) and lUimani, in the most eastern chain, re*
spectively 24,812 and 24,155 feet above the level of the sea.
This high plateau extends further both to the north and
south, but upon its other two sides it terminates abruptly by
rapid descents into regions but comparatively little elevated
above the level of the sea, which differ very greatly firom it, as
well as from one another, in both climate and general geogra-
phical features. On the east side, the greatest heights of the
Andes look down like precipices upon the virgin forests and the
low, humid, hot valleys and plains, irrigated by copious rains,
and traversed by mighty rivers, which divide the republics of
Peru and Bolivia firom the empire of Brazil, the change being so
sudden that the traveller descending from the perpetual snows
of the Andes finds himself in the course of but a few hours^
journey amongst the palms and luxuriant hothouse v^etation
of the tropics.
On the western side, however, the change, although seen to
be equally sudden, is altogether different in character; for upon
leaving behind the cold misty mountains and streams of the
Aymara highlands and crossing, as it were, an almost sharply
defined line, every thing in the shape of moisture vanishes ; the
air becomes all at once clear, dry, hot, and scorching; and the
mountain-declivities and sloping plains, which extend to the
Pacific Ocean, present the appearance of an arid and, in many
parts, saline desert, — ^a rainless region, destitute of water and,
consequently, of verdure, in which few living creatures are to be
seen, other than the numerous lizards basking in the sun, or the
occasional huanaco which has strayed down from the mountains
above. Vegetation is altogether absent, or at most only repre-
sented by a few solitary cactus trunks, except only in some few
favoured small valleys (like cafions) far distant from one another,
in which some small rivulet or natural spring exists, frumishing
the basis for a luxuriant vegetation, like an oasis in the midst of
a desert.
If the latitude of this country be alone taken into considera-
tion, and its altitude above the sea-level neglected, the climate
of this high table-land will be regarded as an extremely severe
one. Above 17,000 feet the mountains are covered with perpe-
tual snow ; but below this elevation the snow seldom remains for
more than a few days at a time. The year may be divided into
a rainy and a dry season ; the rainy season, commencing in No-
vember or December, continues until April, with heavy rains
and occasional snow-storms, the weather usually cold and raw,
the thermometer indicating between 40° and 50° F., and not
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of Bolivia and Peru. 195
unfrequently descending to the freezing-pointy or even some few
dqgrees below it^ whilst the air is nsually damp^ and the .moun-
tains are enveloped in dense misty clouds.
In the dry season, from April to November, the climate is
fine and rather agreeable, the thermometer in the shade ranging
from 50* to 7(f P. ; but in the sun the air is extremely scorching,
and often accompanied by winds, which are so dry and parching as
to affect the face and eyes in an extraordinary degree, blistering
and drying up the skin to the consistence of horn, and making
it crack and peel off, so as to cause extreme irritation, and even
temporary disfigurement — so much so that when travelling in
the Puna region it is customary amongst the whites to protect
the face by masks or veils. During this season storms of rain
and wind, with thunder and lightning, often of a truly terrific
nature, are very common, and frequently cause considerable
loss of life to man as well as beast ; these storms are often accom-
panied by hail of great size, and, as I have noticed, sometimes
of a peculiar conical form.
Situated near the northern extremity of this district is the
greatest sheet of water or inland sea of South America, called
the Lake of Titicaca*, covering a superficial area of about 2500
geographical square miles, hems 100 miles in length from N.W.
to S.E., with an average breadth of about 25 miles, although
it is some 35 miles across in its broadest part. The surface
of this lake is elevated 12,850 English feet above the level of the
sea; and its waters are somewhat brackish. When not agitated
by the winds, 1 found the surface-waters almost fresh to the
taste; but it was evident that in depth the lower stratum of
"water was much more saline.
The shores of the Lake of Titicaca still remain the home, and
no doubt also were the original cradle of the Aymara race, from
^hich neither the victories of the Incas nor the subsequent con-
quest by the Spaniards have succeeded in dislodging them,
notwithstanding that this has been the case with so many of
the other tribes of both North and South America. The Ay-
mara f or, as they were frequently termed by older Spanish
* Thifl name is supposed to have been derived ficom the Aymara words
** Uti " and " Caca." " Titi " is the Aymara name for tin, the ores of which
are found in large quantity on the east side of the lake at Oarabuco ; and
*^ Caca/' a rock. Titi is also the name for the wild cat in Aymara; and as
there is a tradition amount the Indians of the appearance at times of an
enormous wild cat on the island of Titicaca, some of the old Spaniards have
accepted this interpretation.
t it is believed that the name Aymara was applied to this race of Indians
even before the foundation of the Inca empire (vide Garcilasso de la Veffa,
Com. Real, de las Incas, Book iii. chap. x. p. 84). The name of Colla In-
dians is of much later date, and is derived firom their being inhabitants of
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196 David Forbes — On ike Aymara Indians
writers, the " Colla'' Indians are the only race in Peru or Bolivia
at all entitled to the appellation of the " Titicaca race/' which
term has been quite incorrectly applied by Tschudi and others
to the Inca or Quechua nation, a race totally distinct in lan-
guage, character, and geographical position.
Under the Inca dynasty the Aymaras, although subjugated,
appear to have remained more as a tributary people, without ever
being actually incorporated into the empire ; and consequently
they never became assimilated into the great Peruvian or
Quechua-speaking nation, as was the case with the numerous
Indian tribes both to the north and south of them. Even to
the present day they remain more or less isolated, and in many
respects almost unchanged, retaining their ancient language,
and a sort of national existence more pronounced probably than
any of the other Indian races now remaining under the Hispano-
American rule.
Most of the Indian languages in both the Americas have
become all but extinct, and gradually replaced by Spanish or
English. The only ones which, in Spanish or Portuguese South
America, have survived are the Quechua in Northern Peru and
Southern Bolivia, the Aymara in southern Peru and Northern
Bolivia, and the Guarani in Brazil and Paraguay ; these three
may still be said to remain the languages of the countries,
being, like Hindostanee in India, generally spoken by the white
inhabitants also, and alone used by them in their intercourse
with their domestics and with the mixed and pure Indian popu-
lation.
The history of the Aymaras calls to mind the ancient history
of the Welsh, where the inhabitants of Wales, unable to oppose
their more numerous invaders in the open field, retired to their
mountain fortresses, and, by their dogged but patriotic cha-
racter, managed not only to prevent their being absorbed into
the mass of their more powerful neighbours, but to preserve
their ancient language and many of their customs even down to
the present day.
What little is known of the early history of this race may
be stated in but a few words. According to Indian tradition,
from Aymara as well as Quechua or Inca sources, the inha-
bitants of this country, even in or before the time of the first
Inca, Manco Capac (1021-1062), possessed a degree of civiliza-
tion higher than that of the Incas themselves, or probably of
Colla-Buyo, or the southern division of the Inca empire, which was divided
into four grand quarters, known as the Ohincha-suyo, or North ; the Oolla-
suyo, or South; the Anti-suvo, or East; and the Cunti-suyo, or West
The term Colki Indians prob*'ibIy included many other Indian tribes in the
south, and may be regarded as a purely geogr^pfiical name.
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oj Bolivia and Peru. 197
even any other of the South- American tribes ; and evidences
attesting this may still be seen in the ruins of the grand
temples and palaces of Tiahuanaco^ on the southern shore of
Lake Titicaca.
At this early period^ however, every thing is involved in dark-
ness, until Lloque Yupanki, the third of the Incas (1091-1126),
in a war against the Aymaras, overran the entire district, situated
on the western side of the lake of Titicaca, inhabited by these
Indians, and annexed to the Inca dominion the whole of that
portion of the Aymara country at present included in the re-
public of Peru. Although his victorious progress was stopped
by the river Disaguadero, which runs southward from the Lake
of Titicaca, his successor, the fourth Inca, Mayta Capac (1126-
1156), continued the war, crossing the Disaguadero and taking
Tiahuanaco, which at that time appears to have been the seat
of government of the Aymaras, and extending his conquests
southwards, over the provinces of Caquiaviri, Huarina, Larecaja,
Huaichu, and Chuquiapu, now called La Paz.
The victories of the fifth and sixth Incas carried their arms still
further southwards ; and under the seventh Inca, Yahuar Hu-
accac (1249-1289), the subjugation of the Aymara-speaking or
CoUa Indians was completed by the conquest of Caraugas, their
most southern province ; after which his successors on the throne
extended the Peruvian empire northwards, westwards, and still
fiirther to the south, so as to annex not only the remainder
of Peru and Bolivia, but, traversing the desert of Atacama, to
include the greater part of Chile, as far south as the river Maule,
before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1526.
With, the exception only of the Aymaras, all the other Indian
tribes thus brought under the rule of the Incas seem to have
been quickly deprived of all traces of a separate national exist-
ence, losing even their language and adopting that of their con-
querors, the Quechua or, as it was called by the Spaniards, the
" Lengua general del Peru,^' and otherwise becoming in every
respect identified with the conquering race. The Aymaras,
on the contrary, never submitted tamely to their Peruvian
masters, but from time to time gave them much trouble by
attempts to recover their independence, which, however, always
proved unsuccessful, and invariably were punished with extreme
severity.
According to an old tradition, the entire population of the
province of Aymaraes, after an unsuccessful revolt, were forcibly
removed into exile by the Incas, and the country repopulated by
Quechua-speaking colonists from a distant part of the Empire.
One of the last attempts made by the Aymaras to throw ofl"
the Peruvian yoke appears to have been by the inhabitants of
^ Digitized by Google
198 David Forbss — On the Aymara Indians
the province of Carangas not many years before the arrival of
the Spaniards in the reign of the twelfth Inca^ Huayna Capac
(1475-1525)^ and was only put down after much bloodshed;
according to a tradition still preserved in the district^ a great
number of the prisoners taken in this rebellion were^ after having
had their throats cut^ thrown into a lake^ which from that time
has retained the name of ''Yahuar Cocha^' or the Lake of
Blood.
Whatever may have been the condition of the Aymaras under
the Incasj it became infinitely worse after the Spaniard con-
quest; it is all but impossible to convey in words a true picture
of the barbarous treatment which they^ as well as the neigh-
bouring Indian tribes^ experienced at the hands of the Spaniards.
Treated infinitely worse than slaves^ they were torn from their
homes and families to be driven like cattle either to the coca
plantations and gold- washings in the Yungas^ or hot unhealthy
valleys to the east of the high Andes (where they rapidly fell
victims to a climate altogether unsuited to their constitutions)^ or
to the silver mines of Potosi^ Chayanta, Oruro, &c. (where irom.
forced labour^ ill-treatment^ and insufficient food they succumbed
ei^ually fast^ only to be replaced by fi^sh supplies similarly ob-
tamed).
The statements made by some of the old writers on this sub-
ject seemed altogether incredible until a personal acquaintance
with the country showed that they were not exaggerated.
Everywhere proofs are seen of a former dense population : de-
serted villages are met with at every step ; and the ndes of the
mountams even^ in many parts up to the very line of perpetual
snowj are covered with walled-in enclosures, fields, and terraces
which had formerly been cultivated but now lie desert and
abandoned ; and the traveller who journeys day after day through
such districts cannot but believe that the Aymara country, which
does not now contain a population of much more than three
quarters of a million, must in former times have contained
several million inhabitants.
Notwithstanding the naturally submissive character of the
Indians, the cruelties of the Spaniards at last drove them, in
1780, into open rebellion ; the Aymaras under the Cataris, joined
soon after by some of the Quechuas under Tupac Amaru, rose
up against the whites and all but effected their entire extermi-
nation ; as it was, more than 40,000 Spaniards perished, and the
country was only saved to the crown of Spain by the arrival of
an army sent from Buenos Ayres to the rescue.
The effect of this insurrection was, as might be expected, to
paralyze and in great measure destroy the commerce and in-
dustries of the country, more especially the mines, to such a
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of Bolivia and Peru. 199
degree that they have never yet recovered. Soon after, the
war of South- American Independence broke out^ continuing
until 1826, and foUowed by the endless civil wars and internal
dissensions in the new republic, which still continue, and have
resulted in this rich country retrograding instead of advancing
with the age.
In these wars, the fighting fell all but entirely to the whites
and mixed races, the pure Indians looking on and abiding their
time until the governing powers should have exhausted them-
selves : and as during this period, if not better treated, the
Indians had at least been left more to themselves, they rapidly
increased in numbers and became every day more confident in
their own strength. In 1854 it was discovered that they had
made preparations for an immediate rise ; and had they done so,
they must have completely overpowered the whites, had not,
fortunately for the latter, a terrible epidemic (a species of
typhoid fever) broken out amongst the Indians and, without
attacking the whites, committed such havoc amongst them as to
all but depopulate entire districts. In 1860 an attempt to rise
was made on a small scale by the Aymara Indians of Tiquina,
in which some horrible cruelties were committed on the un-
fortunate whites who fell into their hands ; this rising, however,
was entirely local, and was very quickly suppressed by some
Bolivian troops under Colonel Flores.
There can be no doubt, however, that the Aymara Indians
cherish the most deep-rooted and inveterate hatred towards their
white oppressors, and console themselves with the hope that
sooner or later they will be enabled to repossess themselves of
the country of their ancestors.
The condition of the Aymara Indians under the Bepublics of
Peru and Bolivia, although no doubt infinitely better than in
the time of the Spaniards, is nevertheless still very deplorable.
Although declared free by the constitution, they in reality are
only serfs, being ill treated and imposed upon in all manner of
ways*^ by both the civil and military authorities, as well as by
the white population in general, who all combine to plunder
them whenever an opportunity occurs ; so that it is no wonder
that the poor Indian is never happier than when he is up
amongst his mountains far away from the white man.
The Aymara Indians in the country generally live in little
straggling villages or clusters of houses, and are associated in
what are called " Comunidades,'' to which the governments of
the Republics have apportioned the major part of the land not
* Cortes, in his ' Ensayo sobre la bistoria de Bolivia,' Sucre, 1861| p. 800,
says, ''Los indios, a causa de su ignorancia, no saben hacervalersus derechos,
que no son mas que un nombre, y todo el mundo se cree facultado a abusar de
aquella clase degradada de nueetra sociedad/' ^ .^.^^^ ^ GoOqIc
200
David Forbes — On the Aymara Indiana
occupied by the whites^ and iu return impose upon the Indians
an annual contribution or, as it is termed, " tributo/^ amounting
to some 4 to 10 Bolivian dollars per annum, payable half-yearly.
At the head of each of these Comunidades is an Indian (one
of themselves), who has the title of Alcalde, and carries, ad a
mark of office, a sort of wand not unlike a thick long English
carter^s whip (without the lash), and like it usually decorated
with numerous ferrules, or flat rings, often of silver. The Alcalde
is responsible for keeping the Indians in order, and is the
medium of communication with the white authorities of the
district. All their internal affairs are managed amongst them-
selves, including the subdivision of the lands amongst the families,
in which the widow always takes her share with ^e others. The
white population are exempt from the "tributo;'' and since
about the year 1856, the Peruvian government, rich from their
Huano deposits on the islands of the coast, have not enforced
this contribution from their Indians. In Bolivia, however, it
still remains one, if not the, most important item of the
revenue.
The public works of a district, such as roads, bridges, churches,
&c., are all executed by the compulsory and unpaid labour of
the Indians in the vicinity.
The Aymara population of Bolivia and Peru together probably
does not exceed three quarters of a million, if so much ; but
I have endeavoured to obtain as near an approximation as
possible in countries where not much reliance can be placed in
their statistics.
In Bolivia the entire population, as taken in the census made
during the summer of 1854, of the Aymara-speaking provinces,
eleven in number, was as follows : —
Name of
Province.
White and
mixed
Total
populatkm.
Male.
Female.
Total.
La Paz
28,155
41,206
33,459
24,111
16,493
13,082
10,060
8,793
9,483
21,907
9,846
31,974
45,547
82,381
24,697
18,319
11,641
10,880
8,454
9,822
21,115
10,821
60,129
87,758
65,840
48,808
84,812
24,728
20,440
17,247
19,805
48,022
20,667
29,353
4,565
5,870
4,509
6,210
8,802
6,067
8,844
6,249
1,880
681
89,482
91,318
71,710
53,317
41,022
83,625
26,507
21,091
26,654
44,352
21,848
Omasuyos
Ineravi
Sica Sica
Munecas
Yungas
Larecaja
laquisivi
Oruro
Paria
Carangas
216,595
226,151
441,746
77,480
619,226
of Bolivia and Peru, 201
from which it will be perceived that the total admixture of whites
and half-castes is not more than 15 per cent. ; and of these the
large portion are in the city of La Paz^ Oruro^ and some of the
other larger towns. Since the above census was taken^ another
was made in La Paz, in 1858; but up to the date of my depar-
ture from Bolivia, in 1864, nothing but the total numbers of the
inhabitants of each province had been published, without
particulars as to race : these were as follows : —
La Paz 99,059
Omasuyos 103,976
Ingavi 83,699
SicaSica 57,666
Munecas 40,872
Yungas 36,823
Larecaja 31,647
Inquisivi 19,930
Oruro 28,340
Paria 52,618
Carangas 29,973
Total 584,603
and if from this number we deduct 87,236, or the same relative
proportion of whites and mixed races as were found by the
former census, we shall have the pure Aymara Indians of
Bolivia as about 497,367, more or less, in 1858.
In Peru the statistics of the population are far less to be
depended upon than in Bolivia ; for there seems to have been no
census pubUshed between 1795 and 1850. In the former year
the Guia de Forasteros gives the numbers of the Aymaras as
follows : —
o_ . _ Pure Aymara Half-caflte Aymara
Pronnoet. j^^^ Spanish.
Aymaraes 10,782 2,256
Ariquipa 5,929 4,908
Camana 1,249 1,021
Condesuyos 12,011 4,358
Caylloma 12,872 1,417
Moquegua 17,272 2,916
Arica 12,870 1,977
72,985 18,852
If, however, we take the census of the population of these
districts taken in 1850, by Dr. Buenaventura Seoane, as
follows : —
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202 David Forbbs — On the Aymara Indians
Bepartmeiit ProTinoe. PopuUtion. ToCaL
Ousco Aymaraes 18,221 18^21.
rCercado 60,04!0^
Camani 11,270 |
Ariquipa ...< CayUoma 23,449 V 121,686.
1 Condesuyos 21,170
'^ Union; 16,669j
f Arica 18,6421
Moquequa... \ Cercado 82,380 t 61,440.
[ Tarapaca 10,4il8J
fAzdngaro 64,333')
Carabaya 22,138
Puno < Chucuito 36,967 > 246,681.
I Huancand 66,766
LLampa 76,488J
446,927.
and from this number we now deduct^ as in tbe ease of the
Bolivian census^ some 16 per cent., or 67,038^ as belonging to
mixed races and whites, we shall have the numbers of the
Aymara race approximately as follows : —
Peruvian 879,884
Bolivian 497,367
or a total of 877,261
a number which seems to me considerably higher than the
reality, more especially as regards Peru : the total number of
pure Aymara Indians cannot, I imagine, be above three quarters
of a million.
Under the Spanish rigime, owing to the cruel treatment
experienced, the Indian population appears to have been
reduced to its minimum. After the War of Independence it
recovered rapidly up to 1866, when it again became greatly
reduced by the epidemic which raged for some years and in
parts almost cleared away the entire inhabitants; during the
last ten years, however, it has again been augmenting rapidly.
If we consider the total superficial area occupied by this
nation as 46,000 square miles, as before mentioned, then the
numbers above given will represent about nineteen inhabitants
to the square mile. If numbers be taken into the calculation, the
Aymara will be the third of the South- American races, coming
after the Ouarani and Quechua; but, if the superficial area of
their country be alone compared, then they will probably rank
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of Bolivia and Peru. 203
about fifth or sixth, since the tribes of the plains of Brazil and
Patagonia, although much less numerous, occupy a greater area
of country, owing to their nomadic habits — ^tiie very contrary
of the Aymaras.
Upon my first visit to the highlands of Peru and Bolivia, I
was struck with the very characteristic and peculiar appearance
of the Indian population in general, as it seemed to me to difier
greatly, in many respects, from that of any of the other races of
South America or Polynesia with whom I had previously become
acquainted. A great difference in the external proportions of
the body could be remarked at a glance, especially when an
Aymara Indian was seen sitting down or on horseback, and
still more strikingly if by the side of a European similarly
mounted: the greater part of the entire body seemed to be
raised high up above the horse's back, perched up on the legs
in a curious manner ; and other peculiarities of outline show^
themselves, which made me extremely interested in finding out
how these differences could be accounted for.
A subsequent residence of some three years in the very
centre of the country inhabited by the Aymara Indians, with
whom I was brought into immediate and daily contact, offered
excellent opportunities for studying them more closely; and,
although I now perceive with regret that I could have profited
much more than I did by the facilities thus afforded me, still I
believe that any details relating to this very remarkable and
so little known race of men cannot fail to prove interesting to
ethnologists, and I now submit the following abstract of my
notes made during the years from 1859 to 1863 inclusive.
The general bmld of the Aymara Indians may be described
as massive without being large; short, thickset, beardless men,
who, as far as my measurements enable me to judge, do not
average above 5 feet 3 inches English, and rarely exceed 5 feet
4 inches in height; they are a somewhat large-headed, small-
eyed, square-built, broad-shouldered, long-bodied, short-legged,
and small-footed race, whose form is more indicative of strength
than of beauty or flexibility.
The contours are, as a rule, full and rounded off, rarely, if
ever, angular, the breasts being often prominent in the male as
well as the female, and the whole outline conveying a somewhat
effeminate impression, as is the case with many of the other
South- American tribes ; so that in youth the sexes are often not
easily to be distinguished in appearance from one another,
except by dress.
The men are generally well-formed, and sometimes even
handsome; but the women, who appeared to average about
4 feet 8 inches in height, are seldom so, being usually far too
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204 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
robust, as well as heavy in their movements, to possess any thing
like grace; yet, occasionally, exceptions are to be met with,
who, if washed and dressed up, might, even when placed along-
side Europeans, be considered pleasing and good-looking.
Neither men nor women, although very robust, appear ever to
become corpulent j I cannot call to mind having seen a single
instance of a fat person amongst the pure Indians; yet amongst
the '' Cholada,^' or half Indian half Spanish race, this is fre-
quent enough.
l^hroughout the whole of the Aymara-speaking country these
Indians present a remarkable uniformity as well in their habits
and customs as in their outward appearance ; and this seems to
have been so from time immemorial, since the representations
on ancient sculptures, pottery, and the little images found in
the Indian graves are, in many cases, but copies of what the
Indians themselves are at the present day, and in some in-
stances not only show the exact character of the face, but also
indicate the peculiarities of the relative proportions of the body
as seen in the Aymaras at present.
The appearance of the face and head of what I regard as the
normal Aymara of the highlands or Titicaca region may be seen
(male and female) on reference to Plates XVII. & XVIIL, which
represent very correctly an Aymara man and woman of the De-
partment of La Paz, in Bolivia*, and were drawn from life by
Mr. Isidore Miiller expressly for me. In some parts of the country,
however, especially in the north, where the Quechua-Indian
race commences, another type of face is also seen amongst the
men (it is rarer in the women), represented in PI. XIX. This,
however, is quite a subordinate type ; and, as will be perceived,
the shape of the head is somewhat rounder, and the expression
far from being so good as in the normal type ; excepting only
the head, I found that the proportions of idl the other parts of
the body were identical in both these types.
The facial angle differs but little from that of the European ;
and the features and profile of the normal Aymara are decidedly
good. The head always appears to be somewhat long from
behind to before, and, if any thing, somewhat large when com-
pared with the body ; it appears to be less wide than the Quechua
head : the cheek-bones are seldom very prominent, except in old
age, and the face is only slightly oval, the hair on the forehead
in the men, and still more so in the women, descending very low.
The extraordinary elongated skulls (many of which have
been received in Europe and have been frequently figured as
• The figure mven in Smith's ' Natural History of the Human Species/
of an Indian of the Oto tribe, in North America, is almost an exact likeness
of Conduri, an old Aymara man, some time in my service.
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■VlT^f
AYMARA WOMAN
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of Bolivia and Peru, 205
well as described) which are met with in the ancient graves on
the islands in the Lake Titicaca^ in the Asmara country^ have
been described and regarded by Tschudi as natural and pecu-
liar to what he caUs the Titicaca or Inca race. As before men-
tioned, the Inca or Quechua race cannot be correctly termed a
Titicaca race, since the entire shores of Lake Titicaca have even
from pre-incarial times been solely inhabited by the Aymaras,
although subsequently conquered by the Incas. Elongated
skulls are not confined to this district*, or even entitled to be
considered natural productions; if the evidence to prove their
artificial origin is allowed due weight, the partial or total
obliteration of the sutures in all those skulls which I examined
must be regarded as so many proofs of the application of com-
pression in infancy; and Bolivians who have disinterred them
assure me that in the same graves (family or tribal burial-
grounds) many other skulls of the usual form were always
found along with them, and that the general opinion was that
these elongated skulls belonged to the families of chieftains,
amongst whom it was considered a mark of distinction to so
distort the head (of the male only) in childhood. Although
Tschudi mentions that he could not find any evidence to show
that such practice of compressing the head was usual amongst
the ancient Peruvians, I found full proof to the contrary upon
searching the ' Ordinanzas del Peru,' Lima 1752, where, in tomo
primero, lib. ii. tit. ix. ord. viii., we find the decree : —
'' Iten mando, qui nigun Indio ni India apriete las cabezas
de las criaturas recien nacidos como lo suelen hazer por hazerlos
mas lai^as; porque de averlo hecho, se lesk recrecido, y recrece
dafio, y vienen amorrir dello, y desto tengen gran cuydado los
Justicias, sacerdotes, y alcaldes y caciques en que no se hagaf,^^
which may be considered as settling this question.
The superoccipital or. interparietal bone, the os Inca of
Tschudi, cannot be considered peculiar to any Titicaca race ; for
not only was it deficient in all the skulls which I examined
from this district, recent as well as ancient, but it was found
present in some of the skulls out of the graves on the Pacific
coast (out of 111 skulls examined by me at Arica and further
south I found 3 with this bone) ; it seems to me probable, how-
ever, that it is somewhat more common amongst the American
races than amongst those of other parts of the world, at least so
far as our knowledge at present extends.
The general expression of the Aymara face is sad and reflec-
tive, melancholic, with at the same time a strong admixture of
* In 1863 1 disinterred three fine specimens of elongated skulls from
inrAves on the very edge of the Pacihc^ at Pisa^ua^ in the province of
rarapacAy in Peru. t Spelling a^ in original.
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206 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
determination, as if a continual struggle was going on within
to conceal the emotions under the appearance of stolid indiffer-
ence, which, however, is far from real ; the expression of stu-
pidity often seen and described by travellers is altogether
assumed. The Aymara Indian is always grave, and rarely seen
to laugh or even smile; whilst the Quechua Indians are in
these respects very different.
The profile is good, the nose being invariably aquiline, except
in the instances before alluded to ; and in all the ancient figures
the nose is also, as a rule, aquiline. In many cases, especially
in women, it is often somewhat curved inwards at the point;
the nostrils are usually broad at the base, open, and expanded.
The mouth is somewhat large, but not excessively so, the lips
being of a yellowish or brownish red colour, often full, but not
flabby or thick as in the negro. The teeth, usually very regular
and almost vertical, are generally fine and white, unless coloured
by coca-chewing; they resist age well, and caries is not very
common.
The eyes are always small, black or deep brown in colour,
the cornea being, however, never pure white, but invariably
more or less yellowish in tint ; they are brilliant and generally
deep-set, the eyelids being fringed with long, fine, black lashes.
The angle made by the central line of the eyes is very slightly
inclined inwards, not nearly so much as in the Mongol, yet not
altogether horizontal as in many of the Chinese, The eye-
sight is very good and enduring; the eyebrows are black or
brown black, and usually somewhat sparse.
The hair of the head commences very low down on the fore-
head, and is extremely abundant and long, in the men as well
as the women. It is of a deep black-brown or black colour,
perfectly straight, without any attempt to curl, and rather fine
in texture ; on comparison I found that it was never so coarse
as the black hair of the Spaniards or half-castes. It is said
never to fall off^ or become grey or white in old age; and, as
far as my own observation extended, I cannot remember ever
having seen a pure Indian man or woman, however old, with
white or grey hair.
The men wear their hair drawn backwards over their heads,
and plaited into a long pigtail, sometimes reaching behind down
to their knees ; occasionally the hair, after having been drawn
back, is first divided into several portions (I often noticed five),
each of which are separately plaited for a short distance, and
* The Indianfl have the custom of waslung their hair in urine, which, they
imagine, nourishes it; and this disgusting practiee is also adopted and gene-
rally followed by the Spanish-American women of these parts of South
America.
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of Bolivia and Peru. 207
then the whole united into one long pigtail^ as before. This
same mode of hair-dressing appears also to have been used in
more ancient times, as the hair of several mummies which I dug
out of ancient graves was put up in a like manner. The women
also draw their hair backwards, but then divide it into two por-
tions, which are both plaited into pigtails, one hanging down on
each side of the back.
The men are beardless, and, beyond the eyelashes and eye-
brows, rarely have any trace of hair on the face, although in
some older men I have occasionally seen a few straggling short
hairs on the upper lip, but never so much as could be entitled
to the appellation of a moustache. Neither men nor women
have any hair on or under the arms or legs, nor on the body,
excepting only that the men have occasionally a little tuft or
fringe of soft black hair on the pubes^. It is not the custom to
pull out or otherwise eradicate the hair from any part of the
body ; on the contrary any straggling hair or tuft which might
make its appearance is more Ukely to be encouraged and re-
garded with something akin to pride. The men especially prize
their pigtails, and, I believe, often introduce false hair when
plaiting them, in order to make them appear longer and thicker
at their feasts.
When not exposed to the weather or hard work, the skin of
the Aymara Indian is always extremely smooth, fine, soft, and,
as if polished, having no trace of hair upon it, and never clammy,
but, on the contrary, somewhat cool to the feel. Its odour did
not, at least when in good health and cleanly, appear to be
stronger than in the European — ^in fact, is so slight as to be all
but imperceptible. The Indian, however, whose sense of smell
is highly developed, notwithstanding the state of dirt in which
he lives, has particular names to denote the natural odour of the
white, black, and Indian man respectively.
The colour of the skin in the new-bom infant is of a reddish
tint, and did not appear to me to be very much darker than in
the white infant; but it becomes rapidly darker, and soon ac-
quires the permanent hue of the race. This colour, however,
seemed to me to vary greatly with the locality, no doubt from
causes due entirely to the climate. In the moist, cold high-
lands the colour is a light somewhat coppery brown resembling
much in tint that of many of the North- American Indians. In
the dryer highlands and the rainless valleys of the western range
this colour becomes much less red, and more of a blackish-
brown; whilst in the hot humid valleys of the eastern slopes of
the Andes, looking towards Brazil, all trace of the red dis-
* The women have no hair on the pubes even in old age.
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208 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
appears^ and the skin has a much yellower hue^ a sort of bilious-
looking light-brown tint^ often silky in appearance. As a rule,
the darkest and blackest-looking skin is always found in the
dryest localities^ independent of the amount of 'sun to which it
may be exposed. The influence of the sun, as on the skin of
the European, appears to be, in greater part at least, only mo-
mentary; thus one of the redder-coloured Indians becomes
much darker in tint after remaining some time in the hot dry
district of the Pacific (as, for example, at Tacna), or attains a
more yellowish-brown hue when employed in the gold-workings
or coca plantations in the hot humid valleys of eastern Bolivia ;
yet upon his return to his native mountains the original rud-
dier tint gradually asserts itself in a short time. Although in
the white race the skin of the face and parts exposed to the light
become invariably the darkest, this, at least with regard to the
face, very much to my surprise, was not the case with these
Indians ; for in all the instances where I had opportunities for
comparison, the face was as a rule lighter in colour than the
other, covered parts of the body*.
The Spanish writers have always maintained that the Indian
cannot blush: this is without doubt incorrect; for although,
from the very colour of the skin, it is impossible that a blush
should be so visible as in the white, still, under such circum-
stances as would raise a blush in the latter, there can always be
seen the same expression of modesty or confusion on the coun-
tenance of the Indian, and even in the dark a rise of tempera-
ture of the skin of the face can be felt, exactly as occurs in the
European. On many Aymara Indians I noticed, more particu-
larly in women, a red tinge on the cheek, something like what
might be termed a permanent blush, and reminding one of the
hectic tinge on the cheek which often accompanies ill-health in
the white : whether this in the Indian owes its origin to a similar
cause or not I have not been able to verify.
The great size of the body of the Aymara Indian, when com-
pared with his other dimensions, cannot fail to attract imme-
diate attention ; and a closer examination at once shows that of
this the major part is occupied by the region of the chest ; the
neck is not long, oftener short, but always thick ; the shoulders,
although always broad, convey to the eye the impression of their
being even broader than they are found to be upon actual mea-
surement. The space occupied by the breasts is both broad
and high, i.e. longer than usual — besides projecting much more,
* The skin of the nipples of the mammae in the women and the organs of
generation in the men was deepest in colour, hut that of the inside of the pre-
puce and glans usually flesh-coloured.
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Joum. Et.lino Soc. Vol IT. PI XDC
AVMARA MAN
Liikog'
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of Bolivia and Peru. 209
being nnusually large in circumference, which consequently in-
dicates a great internal capacity, affording space for an immense
development of the breathing-organs. The circumference of the
body both at the waist and navel is unusually laige ; but at the
pelvis, although still large, is not extraordinarily so, except in
the Indian women, who consequently bring forth with great
ease*.
The relative proportions of the extremities are equally re-
markable with that of the body itself, although this is less con-
spicuous in the case of the arm than in that of the leg.
The arm is, as a rule, well formed, full, and rounded, the
muscles^ although well developed, not producing that angu-
larity of outline so commonly seen in the European. The arms
are shorty but chiefly so with respect to the upper arm ; and the
hands are small, but somewhat broad.
The lower extremity is decidedly short, its height from the
ground to the hip (tip of the trochanter major) being, on an
average of a number of measurements, exactly one-half of the
entire stature. The relative proportions of its subdivisions are
curious ; for instead of the thigh being, as in all other know^
nations, longer than the leg, it would appear to be, on the con-
trary, slightly shorter, giving a peculiar appearance to the In-
dians of the highlands of Peru and Bolivia, especially when seen
unclothed. In several of the ancient figures found in the tombs
these relative proportions are distinctly indicated, as also in the
rude pictures and caricatures which the Quechua Indians of
Cochabamba paint and sell about the country, in which Spaniards
and Indians are seen depicted together : the Indians are always
figured with longer bodies and shorter legs than the whites, and
with the thighs looking very short when compared with the length
of the leg.
These remarkable differences in the proportions of the body
and extremities appear also to be present in such of the Quechua
race of Indians as inhabit the highlands to the north of the
Lake of Titicaca — ^but as a whole is most characteristic of the
Aymara race, more especially those who inhabit the great ele-
vated basin of Titicaca, as the Aymara colonies in the lower
regions of Yungas did not exhibit these proportions in nearly so
marked a degree.
* The symphysis pubis seemed to differ somewhat from the European in its
angle, being apparently somewhat more elevated above the fork of the leg9.
The male organs appear to be placed somewhat higher up; the penis is
usually less in its dimensions than in the white, although the testes are about
of the usual size ; in some instances the raphe of the scrotum was observed to
be continued like a thread of flesh attached outside the pkin all the way up
to the prepuce ; but this may be exceptional.
VOL. II. ^ /^^ T
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210 Datid Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
All the joiBts in the Aymara Indian had the appearance of
being somewhat large^ the knee-joint in particular ; as the mea-
surements of the circumference around this joint did not quite
bear this out^ I imagine that the greater width of the joint in
front was alone the principal reason of this appearance.
The legs are perfectly smooth and free from hairs^ and are
well developed, full and rounded in outline, without any mus-
cular angularity. The thickest part, or calf, of the leg is situated
somewhat lower down than usual (the exact reverse of the negro),
at least in the men ; and this, in conjunction with the effect of
the dress, which is a sort of knee-breeches of llama wool, open
and flapping about at the knees (below which the leg is bare),
caused upon me at first the impression that the peculiar appear-
ance and gait of these Indians were due to the leg being in
reality extremely short, whereas upon seeing the entire leg
bared it was perceived and proved by measurement that the
reverse was actually the case.
The calf of the leg is generally well developed ; and in the
Indians of the highlands the surface veins are usually seen to be
extremely prominent, and particularly so in the middle-aged
men, projecting from the surface like varicose veins in Euro-
peans ; yet I am not aware of any evil consequences, although
this was the case with many of my Indian messengers, who
would accomplish extraordinary distances on foot in an almost
incredibly short space of time.
My attention was directed to the structure of the Indian foot,
which is probably one of the smallest known, from observing
that a pair of woollen stockings which had been knitted for me
by an Indian woman were shaped so that there was absolutely
no projection allowed for the heel as usual in those of European
make. Upon examination, I noticed at once that the heel in
the Indian was but very little prominent, and did not project
backwards at all, or, at any rate, not to any thing like the extent
met with in most other races of men, the leg itself rising up
almost straight from the ground at once ; and it is extremely
rare to see amongst the Aymaras the graceful swell of the ankle,
so enticing in what we in Europe regard as a well-made leg.
Another peculiarity of the foot is the position in which it is,
so to speak, set on to the leg : in the Aymara, by far the greater
mass of the foot is placed altogether in front of the leg, the
result of which is, that although the sole or total length of the
foot itself fi^m the heel to the extremity of the great toe is ex-
tremely short, and possibly even more so than in any other race
of men, the back of the foot, t . e. the upper part, measured
from the extremity of the great toe to the nearest part of the leg,
is comparatively very large.
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of Bolivia and Peru. 21 1
The height of the foot, t . e. the distance firom the ground to
the tip of the inner ankle, is not great ; but its breadth is con-
siderable, as well as its circumference measured round the
instep. The great toe is usually very large, and directed out-
wards, which most probably is principally due to the effect of
the thong of the sandals worn by these Indians. Curiously
enough, the foot of the Aymara seems to be about the least
sensitive part of his body ; however cold or wet it may be, they,
as a rule, never seem to feel it, or attempt to cover their feet,
and will walk for miles in the snow and sludge without taking
any precautions or appearing to suffer in the slightest degree
from the damp or severity of the weather. In such cases all
their attention seems directed to keeping their heads, not their
feet, warm.
To the preceding observations, which are as it were a resumi
of my notes on the general appearance and proportion of the
Aymara Indians, I have added in the AppenduL, Table A, a de-
tailed tabular statement, containing the results of a number of
measurements of their bodies, made when in Bolivia and Peru.
These I regard as the more important, since the figures them-
selves will tell their own tale more correctly than any descrip-
tion in words, founded merely upon the impressions which the
external appearance of these Indians in their costumes could
convey to the mind of the traveller.
As it is obviously impossible, by a mere reference to measure-
ments stated in inches, to form any correct idea of the relations
which the various dimensions of the different parts of the body
bear to one another, or to compare the size of any one member
of the body of, say, a small with that of the same member of
a large individual, a supplementary column of figures is in each
case added, which enables all such comparisons to be made at a
glance, since the numbers in these columns are those which
represent the proportion which each individual measurement
bears to that of the entire body or stature of the person, sup-
posing this to be represented by the number 1000^.
In order, however, to facilitate a comparison between the
general proportions of the Aymara Indians of the highlands and
the low valleys, both with one another and also with the white
and black races of Europe and Africa, the annexed tabular state-
ment has also been drawn up in a more condensed form, the
actual measurements in indies having been omitted, and in their
place the proportional numbers before referred to alone inserted,
BO that a mere examination and comparison of these figures with
• This calculation is made simply by multiplying each separate measure-
ment by 1000, and then dividing the product by the whole stature or height
of the individual. ^^ ,
DigitiJld2ydOOgle
212 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
one another will show in what respects and to what extent the
Aymara Indian differs in external configuration firom these
races^ as well as indicate the relative ratios of the dimensions of
the different members of the body to one another.
In this Table the first three columns are devoted to the Ay-
mara : — 1 being the average proportional numbers, based on the
measurements of all the Indians of the Puna or cold highlands
of the l^ticaca region in both Peru and Bolivia, given in the
Table before referred to; 2 the average of two Indians of
the Aymara colonies, in the low hot valleys to the east of the
high Andes, both being colonists of the second generation, t. e.
who themselves, as well as their fathers, had been bom in these
tropical regions ; and 3 the general average of both the pre-
ceding columns; column 4 gives the proportional niunbers
derived from the average of the measurements of two young
Englishmen in robust condition of health, but of two different
types, the Saxon and Celtic, the fair-haired robust and black-
haired slender forms of body respectively; and lastly, the
fifth column gives the average figures obtained from the mea-
surements of three fine specimens of the Menas negro on the
west coast of Africa, — all in excellent health and condition.
When comparing these figures, however, it must, be remem-
bered that, as it naturally follows that every circumferential
measurement made round the body or any of its members must
altogether be dependent upon the condition and general state
of health of the individual at the moment of being taken, such
circumferential measurements are naturally less suited for reli-
able comparison with one another than are those straight mea-
surements taken of the limbs or other parts of the body not
so affected ♦.
* In reference to both these Tables I may state that, having been quite
unable to find any system of human measurement in general use, or to meet
with any published (detailed) measurements of even a single white or black
individuaf for comparison, I was entiiely thrown upon my own resources,
and constructed, wnen in South America, the above scheme of 71 measure-
ments, of which 60 are direct (from nos. 1 to 60) and 11 indirect (a to /)
measurements. These appeared to me to take in all the main features of ex-
ternal human configuration. With regard to the standard white and black
races, or rather the numbers representing the relative proportions of their
bodies, g^iven in the Table, I was obliged, for the same reasons, to content
myself with such averages aa in my travels I found myself enabled persoiially
to obtain.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
of Bolivia and Peru.
213
Mcasurementa*.
1 Stature
2 Extreme distance between finger-tip«, arms liorizon tally
I extended ,
3,II«id, greatest circumference ,
41 , „ width (with callipers) ,
6| , „ antero-posterior diameter (with oillipers)
a , „ height from under chin to vertex (6+7
+8+11 + 12)
h I , height without lower jaw (6+7+8+11)
6, , distance perpendiculs[rl7 from vertex to growth of
j hair
7- , forehead from growth of hair to orbit
8} , Nose from orbit to nostril, vertically
9, , „ projection at nostrils
I0| , „ breadth „ „
, Jaw, upper (upper lip), from nostrils to centre of
mouth
, „ lower (under lip and chin), from centre of
mouth to below chin ,
, Face, breadth between clieck-bones (with callipers)
, " length from growth of hair to below chin
(7+8+11 + 12)
, Eye, distance between inner corner of eyes
. >i M .> outer .,
, „ length of orifice of eye ( ' »> — )
, Mouth, breadth
, Ear, length
Neck, length from chin to semilunar notch of sternum
measured upright
, breadth across from semilunar notch to 7th vertebra
of neck (with callipers)
, circumference
Head and neck, from vertex to semilunar notch of ster-
num (6+7+8+11+12+18)
Trunk, breadth across between outer tips of shoulders in a
straight line
, front lengtli from semilunar notch of sternum to
fork of legs (30+33)
1000 1000 1000
lOlf)
337
87
116
142
114
33
38
26
11
23
17
28
82
IW
22
68
23
34
34
52
83
211
194
230
354
1062
341
94
105
136
HI
36
32
33
12
23
12
26
80
101
19
63
22
33
31
35
72
198
171
1038
339
90
110
140
113
34
35
29
HI
23
15
27
81
ia3
20
65
22i
d3i
32
44
76
205
184
234
1000
10^
326
92
129
143
111
26
43
31
11
20
11
32
73
117
18
59
21
30
36
48
82
204
191
250
1000
1085
302
86
107
139
112
33
37
26
11
27
16
27
76
rj6
22
61
20
31
33
41
83
195
180
241
* In the above Table the direct measurements, sixty in number, are numbered from
1 to 60 ; the indirect, or deductive measurements, eleven in number, are marked a to ^,
and in parentheses are placed the numbers of the direct measurements from which they
are obtained. The circumferential measurements, which are only useful when the exact
state of health of the individual is known, are printed in italics. As it is sometimes
difficult to get the exact distance from the umbilicus to the symphysis pubis, the distance
to the fork or division of the legs, always easily obtainable, is also ffiven ; the circumference
of the body is siven both at the narrowest part, or waist, as well as at the navel, as these
dimensions, although sometimes the same, are not always so.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
214 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
Table {continued).
Meunremento
Ajmxr%.
•« e
H
'U
I?
a-'
I M
11
22 Trunk, Back, length from 7th Tertebra of neck to oe ooc«
ojgw
g ^ gide, lenffth from shoulder-tip to trochanter major
(36+37)
, Breasts, breadth between nipples of mammas
24 , „ height from below mammas to semilunar
notch of sternum
-, Chest, breadth across between armpits, in straight
line
25
26
27
28
29
SC-
SI-
33j-
34'-
, Chest, height in front from semilunar notoh to tip
of sternal cartilaee
— , Chest, height at side from tip of shoulder to lowest
rib
— , Chest, circumference under armpite, respiration at
-, Waist, circumference of the smallest part of body
-, Distance from semilunar notoh of sternum to um-
bilicus
-, Abdomen, circun^erence at narel ,
-, „ distance from umbilicus to symphysis
pubis in a straight line
-, Abdomen, distance from umbilicus to fork of legs
in a straight line ,
-, Abdomen, distance from umbilicus to anterior su-
perior spine of ilium ..
35| , Distance from shoulder-tip to anterior superior
spine of ilium
> FeUis, breadth straight across between the ante-
rior superior spines of the ilium
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
', Felyis, height from anterior superior spine of ilium
to trochanter major
-, Pelvis, circumference round ala
Upper extremity, arm, upper, length of humerus
„ ereaf est circumference .,.
„ least „
lower, length of radius
'eaiest circumference ...
Hand, length from wrist to tip of fore-
finger
Hand, length exolusiye of fingerB(45-<47)
„ breadth exclusive of thumb ...
„ forefinger to knuckle-joint
entire arm from shoulder-joint to tip of
forefin^r (39-1-42+45)
Lower extremity, thigh, length from trochanter major to
knee-joint (femur)
363
337
127
125
190
128
228
580
473
226
490
81
129
88
267
172
70
460
179
145
143
148
148
102
108
56
55
52
435
211
143
98
197
123
215
197
94
231
203
179
141
121
146
187
96
107
54
49
53
220
135
112
194
126
222
212
91
249
188
179
143
132
147
143
99
107i
55
52
52J
433|
215
347 323
334I 322
1221 1231
207
118
175
88j
188|
ll3j
17D
518! 494
433
227
465
87
136
447
220
441
106
971 98
168
164
ai 74
458 443
1S8 i9r»
161, l.V»
127
144
147
176
15^
153
93
94
107
117
50
51
52
60
57
66
442
488
244
258
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of Bolivia and Peru.
Tablb (continued).
215
Heasurementa
Ayman.
!
1.
II
n
49 Lower extremitj, thigh, length inside from fork of 1^ to
knee-joint
50 , thigh, areatest circuftrference
51 — , „ ieast „
52 ■ , 'KnBB'ioiDt, cireun^erence
53 , Leg (tibia)» length from knee-joint to
ankle
54 , greatest wrewmference^ calf of leg
56 ylMuA „ „
56 , Foot, length of the sole from heel to tip
of great toe
, Foot, back or ridge from 1^ to tip of
great toe
58 , Foot, greatest breadth
59 — ^ , „ height from ground to tip of inner
ankle
00 , Foot, greatest circumference around
instep
k ■ — — , entire (thigh, leg, and foot), from tro-
chanter major to ground(48+ 53-1-59)
/ , entire (thigh, 1^, and foot), inside from
fork to ground (49-1-53+59)
191
283
204
202
252
188
127
137
98
56
37
149
500
444
197
aof
227
187
121
143
200
201i
24()
1874
121
140
92 95
56i
57
43
147
490
40
148
500
204
300
200
fi04
230
206
121
148
93
56
47
138
522
495
218
292
223
211
241
204
129
153
102
41
156
540
602
In examining a tabular statement of this character in order
to compare the relative proportions of the different members
of the body of the Aymara Indian both with one another
and with those of other races^ one of the first points which
demand attention is the ratio which the lower extremities or
legs bear to the entire height or stature. From measurement
k in this Table it will be seen that the height of the legs in
the Aymara, measured from the trochanter major of the femur
down to the ground, is 500 thousandths of the stature, i,e.
exactly one-half; whilst in both the European and Negro it is
much greater, being respectively 522 and 540 thousandths, so
that the Aymara and African are the two extremes. In the
white infant I understand that the stature is divided into two
equal parts by a line drawn through the symphysis pubis,
thus the same proportion as in the adult Aymara Indian, but
that subsequently the lower extremities in the white increase
more, becoming relatively longer with age up to puberty.
With regard to the upper extremities or arms, a similar rule
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216 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
seems to hold good ; for upon reference to the measurement No.
2 it will be seen that in the Aymara Indian the distance between
the tips of the fingers, when the arms are held out horizontally, is
also considerably less than in the white or in the black man, these
proportions being respectively 1015, 1034, and 1085 thousandths;
and, as seen in i, the length of the entire arm from shoulder
to tip of finger is 435 in the Aymara, 442 in the European,
and 488 thousandths in the African; so that here again the
Indian and Negro are the extremes, and it is perceived that
the Aymara has the shortest and the African the longest arms
and legs of the three races.
If now the details of the measurements of the upper and lower
extremities be examined in order to compare their relative
proportions one with another, some interesting results, difficult
of explanation, are obtained. Thus, taking the arm, the pro-
portions of its different members, when stated in thousandths of
the stature, are given in the Table as follows : —
89. Upper arm 179
42. Forearm 148
h. Hand without
fingers
47. Longest finger.. 52
Indian. European. African.
} 56
327
108
188
147
50
57
335
107
195
176
51
66
371
117
435 442 488
from which it will be seen that the proportions of the fore arm
and entire hand are nearly the same in the Aymara and Euro-
pean, yet both are shorter than in the African ; also that the
upper arm, both in the white and negro, is much longer than
in the Aymara, — the Indian and African being again, as also in
the length of their fingers, the two extremes ; and fiarther that
the reason why the entire arm of the Aymara Indian is so much
shorter than in the white, lies mainly in the shortness of his
upper arm.
In the lower extremities the results are still more curious,
the different numbers being as follows : —
Indian.
48. Thigh 211
53. Leg 252
59. Foot 37
European.
AfHcftn.
244,
258
280
Ml
47
41
500 521 540
Here we find the extraordinary instance of the thigh being shorter
in length than the leg, which, as far as I am aware, is not the
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
of Bolivia and Peru, 217
case in any other race of men as yet described'^. The African
and Indian are still the extremes with respect to the length of
the thigh ; but the leg appears to be proportionally longest in
the Aymara and shortest in the European.
The great peculiarity of the Aymara foot consists in the
absence of the considerable protuberance at the heel^ so com-
mon in other races^ and which appears to attain its maximum
development in the negro^ who^ consequently^ here again^ as
well as in the total length of the foot^ is the opposite extreme
when compared with the Aymara. Another curious point about
it is that a greater portion of its total length is placed in front
of the leg than in the European^ as will be seen by reference
to the figures in No. 57, which are respectively 98 and 93 thou-
sandths, although the sole of the foot is as 137 to 148 thou-
sandths, and consequently much longer in the European than
in the Aymara. The Aymara and Negro are again the two
extremes when the total length of the foot is compared. Coming
now to the details of the trunk, which is so large in the Aymara
when compared with his stature, we also find that it is divided in
very different proportions between the thoracic and abdominal
regions than in either the white or the black man ; and what
specially deserves attention is, that the region of the chest occupies
a much larger portion of the whole both in height and bulk, thus
giving a vastly greater space for the development of the respira-
tory organs.
If the height of the side of the chest be measured from the
shoulder down to the lowest rib, the numbers given in No. 27 are
228, 175, and 179 for Aymara, European, and African, whilst
that of the entire trunk from the seventh vertebra of neck to the
OS coccygis was found to be 363, 347, and 323 respectively. These
differences, great as they are, are however, in reality, much
greater ; for in addition to the mere height of the chest-region,
its two diameters must also be taken into due consideration ; and
as the circumference of the Aymara chest when measured under
the same conditions of health and respiration was always found
to be considerably greater than in either the white or negro (in
the Table No. 28 gives the figures 580, 518, and 494 respectively) ,
it naturally follows that the capacity of the thoracic cavity must
be much more voluminous in the Indian.
* When making my first measurements of an Aymara Indian, who died
in the hospital of La Paz in February 1860, 1 was so surprised at this result
that I got Dr. Lopera of that city to verify the measurements ; and subse-
quently, in order to avoid deceiving mysel/, I obtained in several other in-
stances the assistance of Dr. Cooke, of London, then residing in Bolivia. The
measiirements of the thigh were all taken from the trochanter major to the
knee-jointHis correctly as these points could be distinguished in the living
subject by the touch.
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218 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
From the above observations it will be perceived that the
more prominent differences in the configuration of the Aymara
Indian from that of the European or Negro consist mainly in
the greater length of the trunk, the enormous development of
the chest, the shortness of the arms^ legs, and feet, and in the
great differences in the relative proportions of the parts which
make up these several members.
The inquiry into the causes which have brought about these
abnormities, ^they may so be called, is one of great interest;
but this I must leave to the ethnologists at home, contenting
myself with having furnished data upon which they may found
their explanations; it is right, however, that I should direct
their attention to some points which cannot but have a strong
bearing upon such researches, and which appear to throw some
light upon more than one of the peculiarities of the build of
these Indians.
It must, in the first place, be borne in mind that the Aymaras
in their normal condition are more or less confined to the high
table-lands of Bolivia and Peru, and consequently live at a
greater elevation above the level of the sea than any known or
at least as yet described race of people ; and as the air at such
great altitudes is extremely rarefied*, it follows as a natural
consequence that it would require a larger development of the
lungs in order to take in an amount of oxygen at each respira-
tion equal to the volume found necessary to keep up the same
activity of circulation at the level of the sea ; for this reason,
therefore, we might expect to find the region of the chest more
prominent in a race living under these exceptional circumstances ;
and it is probably from this reason that the Indian does not
suffer from the so-called Puna or Sorochif which so frequently
* It ifl also not improbable that the prominent or varicose character of the
surface veins of the legs so often seen, as before mentioned, is connected with
the rarity of the external air in which the Indian lives.
t The affection known in different parts of Pacific South America by the
names of Puna, Sorochi, Veta, or Marea, appears to be a species of inflamma-
tion of the lungs, brought on by over-exertion in working tne lungs at so much
quicker a rate than ordinarily, in consequence of the very attenuated state
of the atmosphere at these elevations ; and this is necessarily aggravated hj
the exertions attendant upon travelling in these rude countries. Usually it
commences with more or less severe headaches and a feeling of, as it were,
swelling of the head ; the sense of smelling is often lost ; and the symptoms
occasionally become so aggravated as to end in death. Three instances of
Europeans having died when suffering from Puna came under my notice;
amongst these, the last case was that of Lieutenant Wallace, who, when
crossing the Cordilleras by the pass of Tinogasta, was taken ill at an elevation
of 14,500 feet above the sea, and died on May 2, 1809. These s3rmptQma
anpear to be much aggravated by the use of spirits, often taken as a remedy,
alUiough in reality they seem to augment the inflammation. Onions an
universally recommended as a good remedy, both for man and beast ; for the
Digitized by VjOOQIC
of Bolivia and Peru. 219
attacks the white traveller, whether European or South- Ameri-
can, when he ascends from the Pacific coast to the higher parts
pf the Andes, and which even when he has become in a
measure acclimatized, is likely to attack him whenever he may
happen to over-exert himself.
1 particularly noticed the difficulty in breathing and distress
of the white (Hispano-American) officers in the Bolivian infantry
when the troops happened to march up hill or somewhat faster
than ordinarily, whilst at the same time the soldiers themselves
(half-breed or nearly pure Indians) would be quite unaffected,
and those in the band of music would be blowing away lustily
at their wind instruments without apparently the slightest in-
convenience to themselves.
Although several outlying colonies of these Indians are seen
situated at lower altitudes, it may be considered that normally
the Aymara Indian is not met with below 8000 feet in elevation,
but that, on the contrary, he is only truly at home in the high
plains and mountain-sides ranging in height from 10,000 feet
up to the very line of perpetual snow, which in this part of the
world, lat. 17° S., may be regarded as about 16,500 feet above
the level of the Pacific Ocean.
On descending from these heights, the Aymara Indians, like
their llamas and alpacas^, find themselves altogether out of
mules, when taken up from the lowlands, suffer greatly from Sorochi, and the
arrieros have a practice of rubbing the mouth and nose of their mules with a
sliced onion when at high elevations. With respect to myself, I seldom suf-
fered from Puna at all, and never to any extent, except upon the occasion of
the ascent of Tacora (Chipicani), 19,740 feet ; but I occasionally suffered from
a sense of fulness in the head and headaches, and felt the impossibility of
making any continued exertion, such as running, without being often pulled
up for want of breath, as it is vulgarly called, having to sit down to recover
very much oftener than under the same circumstances at a lower elevation.
Tttchudi considers the first effects of Puna to commence at 12,600 feet eleva-
tion ; but this seems dependent on the state of health of the individual at
the moment, as well as on the locality : whilst I never suffered at all under
16,000 feet, my servant was on one occasion laid up with it at Palca, only
some 9000 feet above the sea : and it is commonly believed in this part of
South America that certain localities are more " Assorochado " than others.
The natives believe it due to what they call " antimonies " or metallic exha^
lations ; from my own experience I found that I suffered from Puna only when
amongst the high volcanic ranges nearer the western coast, and never, even
at equal heights, amongst the western or high Andes. Tschudi mentions its
extraordinary effects upon dogs, and relates that cats cannot live at these
altitudes; but after having lived three years at about 16,400 feet elevation,
my e^roerience was quite the contrary, having been pestered with both these
animals, who seemed to thrive well wherever man hved.
* When brought down to the coast the llama or alpaca seldom lives any
length of time; and as the main trade of Bolivia and the interior is princi-
pally carried on by llamas, the mortality which occurs amongst these ani-
mals after descenmng with their loads nrom the heights of the Andes is a
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
220 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
their natural element, and if they do not soon return, die off in
large numbers -in climates so unsuited to their constitutions.
This is the case both in the dry regions of the Pacific coast and
in the humid valleys to the east of the Andes. On the Pacific
side the pure Indian population (which is not at all numerous)
of such provinces as Arica, Tacna, Tarapaca, &c. is only kept
up by continued fresh arrivals from the interior ; whilst in the
east the same may be said ; for the great mortality amongst the
Aymara Indians who are induced, now by high pay but formerly
by compulsion, to descend from their hills in order to work at
the coca plantations of Yungas, the gold- workings of Tipuani,
or the quinine-bark trade of the eastern forests, affords ample
evidence of how unfitted they are to inhabit these lower regions :
as a rule, but an extremely small percentage of such colonists
survive their transplantation.
In order to examine whether the descendants of such Ay-
mara colonists differed or not in appearance and proportions
from the normal Indian of the highlands, I made, in 1861 and
1862, journeys to the Tipuani and Yuugas districts, to the
foot of the high Andes in the department of La Paz, in Bolivia,
and was so fortunate as to obtain measurements of two indivi-
duals who, as well as their fathers before them, had been bom
in these lower tropical regions. These measurements are given
in full detail in the Appendix, Table A ; but for the purpose of
comparison, the proportional numbers, which alone are intro-
duced in the former table (p. 213) are more convenient for
reference, as they show at a glance that the proportions of at
least several members of their bodies have already experienced
a considerable change from what they were in the parent stock,
as before explained.
These Indians, besides being as a rule somewhat taller men,
appear to have lost very much of their massive build, and
become more slender and flexible in their forms and move-
ments, whilst the colour of their skins had lost all shade of red,
and assumed a yellowish brown, a very different and, at the same
time, less healthy-looking tint.
1
very serious item in the cost of transport Of late years this has heen con-
siderahly reduced by the establishment of stations like those at La Portada,
Palca, sc, situated at the commencement of the descent from the Bolivian
table-land, where the llamas stop and deliver up their ciurffoes to mules, who
take them down to the Pacific harbours, and vice versd, Tne original alpacas
which were brought by Mr. St. Leger from the Bolivian highlands at Chul-
luncajani to the coast of Chili, notwithstanding that several years were occu-
pied m driving them that distance, in order to acclimatize them gradually,
aU di»*d off on the road, so that those which eventually were shipped off to
Australia from Caldera were already of the second and third generation from
the stock started with from the highlands.
Digitized by
Google
of Bolivia and Peru. 221
Prom the Table it Avill be seen that, in the case of the lowland
Indian, the division of the stature or entire height made by the
length or, rather, height of the lower extremities or legs, re-
mained the same as before, being still 500 thousandths, or
exactly one-half of the stature, but that the trunk did not now
take up so much of the other half; for, if the measurement
No. 35 be referred to, it is seen to be only 231 instead of 267
thousandths in the highland Indian ; and of this, again, the
chest-region did not occupy so great a proportion as before, as
will be seen on referring to the measurements Nos. 24 and 25.
Although the length of the arm was not found to differ much,
the distance measured between the finger-tips, when the arms
were held out horizontally (No. 2), was somewhat greater in
* the lowland Indian ; but, as is seen from measurement No. 21,
this was in reality due to the greater breadth across the
shoulders, as also was the case between the nipples of the
breast and across the pelvis; in the lowland Indian, however,
this increased breadth was accompanied by a decrease in width,
for, although not shown in the Table, the body of the highland
Aymara was much wider from back to front than that of the
colonist.
The relations between the lengths of the component members
of the entire arm did not seem to have undergone much change,
being as follows : —
39, upper arm. 42, forearm.
Highlander 179 148
LowLinder 179 146
but, in the case of the leg, the diflTerence was much more pro-
nounced, being —
48, thigh. 53, leg. 59, foot. k, total.
Highlander 211 252 37 500
Lowlander 2^0 227 43 490
which shows that, although the thigh in the lowland Indian
still continues to be somewhat shorter than the leg, it is so in a
very much less proportion than in the highland Aymara, or, in
other words, it much more approaches, or has returned to, the
proportions usual in other races.
The foot also, as will be seen from the measurements Nos. 56,
57, and 58, has undergone an equally great change ; for it has
now, in the lowland Indian, become proportionately both longer
and broader than before ; besides which, the back of the foot
has become shorter if measured from the tip of the great toe to
the Ic^, and consequently the heel has become more prominent
Digitized by LjOOQ IC
46, band.
1, total
108
435
107
432
222 Davii) F0RBE8 — On the Aymara Indians
than in the foot of the highland Aymara, in which, as before
observed, it is very slightly pronounced*.
To place too much reliance upon figures derived from the
measurements of only two individuals would not be prudent ;
yet, when these are taken in conjunction mith the general
appearance of the Aymara Indians of the lowlands as a whole,
it seems to me not only all but certain that we have here
very confirmatory evidence that the remarkable configuration
of the highland or normal Aymara must be in great measure
dependent upon local circumstances, more particularly those of
climate and elevation above the level of the sea, but also that we
have strong proofs, when these circumstances again become
changed, that the relative proportions of the body may again
return in their dimensions, so as to approximate more closely '
to those found in other races of men living under similar and
more ordinary conditions.
The mixed race of Aymara and white have always been
derived from the intercourse of Indian women with men of
Spanish extraction ; and although in external appearance they
may be regarded as an improvement upon the Indian, my belief
is that, in moral character at least, the Cholada, as they are
called on the Pacific coast {cholo, man; chola, woman), are, if
any thing, inferior to either of their parents, from having re-
tained most, if not all, the vices of both with but very few of
the virtues of either race.
I now regret that I did not avail myself of the opportunities
afforded me for obtaining a series of measurements of the mixed
races ; but, judging from their external appearance, I should ima-
gine that the chest- and trunk-region were longer, and the ex-
tremities shorter than in the white, although probably not so
much so as in the pure Indian. The general features of the
half-caste are usually more Indian, and generally more pro-
nouncedly so in the man than in the woman. Occasionally
pretty, and sometimes even handsome, half-caste women, as
well as men, may be met with; and they often become very
corpulent, which is never the case with the pure Indiioi.
* The measurements made on several individuals pertaining to the Tacana
and Muchani tribes of Indians, to the east of Aymaras, who innabit the lower
tropical slopes of the Andes looking towards Brazil, as also of the P^uenche
Indians of the Pampas of the Argentine Confederation, showed that tiiese
races were not characterized by any of the remarkable peculiarities of the
Avmara configuration, such as the great length of body and cheat, shortnesa
of extremities, absence of heat, &c. ; and measurements of the bones of
mummies taken out of graves near Arica and Pisaqua, on the Padfic coast of
Peru, proved that in these instances the thigh could not have been shorter
than tlie leg, since the femur, when measured from its lower extremity to
the tip of the trochanter major, was always longer than the tibia.
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of Bolivia and Peru. 228
The cornea of the eyes always remains yellowish in coloor ;
and they usually possess but very little hair on the face or body,
although the hair of the head is extremely abundant and long :
it is of a dark brown-black to black colour ; and, although not
coarse in texture, I have several times observed that it appeared
to be coarser than in the pure Indian. The colour of the skin
is seldom darker than in the darker inhabitants of southern
Europe ; but on the body I noticed that it was not unfrequently
patchy and irregular in tint*.
Although no great reliance can, as before remarked, be placed
on the statistics of the population of these countries, it appears
to me, even after making due allowance for the mortality
amongst the half-castes caused by the interminable civil wars,
which have lasted ever since the independence of Spanish
America was secured, during which the mass of the combatants
were drawn from this class, that the Cholada or mixed race do
not increase in numbers in such proportion as they might have
been expected to do, provided they had really been inter se a
fruitful race.
Without being able to advance absolute proof, I still retain
the impression that the half-caste of the first generation, i. e,
those resulting from the intercourse of the white man with the
pure Indian woman, are not amongst themselves very prolific,
and that the Cholada are really but a floating population whose
numbers are kept up, at least in major part, by the direct
offspring of the white man and Indian woman, and of both
white and pure Indian with the half-caste woman, and not, as
is usually imagined, the progeny of the Indian half-caste with
the Indian half-caste t*
It seems to me difficult otherwise to explain why we still
meet in Bolivia with three, as it were, quite distinct races, and do
not find any complete fusion of the inhabitants of the country
into one uniform mixed race,— or to understand how an Indian
tribe like the Aymaras could have retained, as it were, a distinct
and separate existence all but unmixed with, and apart from,'
either the Cholada or the white population of Bolivia or Peru.
In the time of the Spaniards many negro slaves were intro-
duced into Bolivia ; but they seem to have quickly died out,
owing to this highland climate being quite unsuited to their
constitutions, so that it is now very rare to meet with half-
* Dr. Haygarth, of La Paz, informs me that in the nearly white crosses
the last trace of Indian blood is indicated by the dark colour around the
nipples of the breast, and anus, and in a black line or groove extending from
the pubes to the umoUicus and upwards, in children of both sexes.
t What I have seen of the mulatto or ne^ro half-caste makes me inclined
to beHeve that this is fdso the case with tnem, and that such a thing as a
true mulatto or half-breed race does not exist in actuality.
.gitized by Google
224 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
breeds between the negro and Aymara ; on the eastern side of
the Andes, in the tropical valleys of Yungas, however, I have
met some few examples; and, to judge firom their appearance,
they seemed rather a fine race. The colour of the skin was of
a rich dark-brown tint, smooth, and glossy ; the nose straight,
and the features rather good, yet with the mouth and lips much
fuller than in the Indian ; the eyes black and brilliant, and the
whole expression intelligent and infinitely more animated than
in the Aymara ; the hair glossy, jet black, and with a slight
tendency to curl.
On the Pacific coast are to be seen a few half-breeds resulting
from the intercourse of Chinamen with Indian women; and
certainly their external appearance would lead to the conclusion
that they were far from being an improvement upon either of
the parent races ; for they were intensely ugly, both in features
and expression.
The Aymara Indians of the "Puna,'' as the highlands of
Bolivia and Peru are termed, generally enjoy robust health,
and, notwithstanding that they are exposed to a very trying and
severe climate, and are poorly clothed, lodged, and nourished,
both men and women, as far as I could learn, frequently attain
to an advanced age. One great reason for this, however, is that,
owing to the great mortality which takes place amongst the
infants, a sort of natural selection asserts itself, and only the
very strong children survive the first few years after birth : this
is, no doubt, also the cause why deformed individuals are rarely
or ever seen.
There seemed to be but few large families — very seldom more
than four children, and more often less than that number. The
infants are kept to the breast always for one year, and frequently
until they are two years of age, and are swaddled up in llama-
wool cloths, and bound round so as to be quite unable to move
their limbs in any direction; in this state they are carried
about, sbing in a poncho behind their mother's backs, as with
the peasantry in some parts of Ireland. At the religious
feasts, when women as well as men usually contrive to attain a
state of beastly intoxication, these living bundles are often left
lying about on the ground, exposed to the inclemency of the
weather, and not unfrequently perish before their wretched
parents come to their senses. On the morning after such a
feast I found the little child of one of my Indians dead from
exhaustion, after having been left out in the rain all night; and
such scenes are far from unconmion.
In some districts, particularly in the provinces of Larccaja
and Mufiecas, the Indians suffer from wens or goitre, which
-^ften attain a great size. Amongst the inhabitants of Quiabaya
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of Bolivia and Peru. 225
and Sorata it is so common that they have received from their
neighbours, not so affected, the nickname of ^'Ccotosos/'
from Ccoto, the Aymara word for goitre. Although the Cho-
lada as well as the pure Indians suffer much from this disease,
I did not hear of any instances in which whites were affected;
yet I had previously found it common enough amongst the
white inhabitants of the province of Mendoza, in the Argentine
Confederation, where also Dr. Edmund Day informed me of a
case of an infant bom with decisive symptoms of goitre. Animals
are also stated to be affected; and Dofia Toribia Bemal, of
Sorata, informed me that she had an instance in two kids born
with incipient goitre.
In Bolivia, dried seaweed from the shores of the Pacific is
employed in the cure of goitre. In March 1859 I saw large
quantities being collected for this purpose at Cobija, and for-
warded some 300 miles into the interior, where it is sold at the
rate of 4 Bolivian dollars per arroba, of 25 pounds, or about
sixpence per pound. The employment of this substance in
m^icine is remarkable, as showing how similar results may be
arrived at in far distant parts of the globe ; for it is quite evident
that the curative properties of the seaweed are due to the iodine
contained in it ; yet in Europe the discovery and employment
of preparations of iodine in the cure of goitre are comparatively
of but very recent date.
An* epidemic, known as the "Peste,'' committed terrible
havoc amongst the Aymara Indians of Peru and Bolivia, in the
years from 1855 to 1858, without at the same time appearing to
attack the white inhabitants; I understand, from Drs. Hay-
garth, Cooke, and Lopera, that this was a species of fever closely
allied to typhus, and raged with greatest violence during the
months from June to September. It was accompanied by the
appearance of spots on the skin of the body, and by intense
haemorrhage from the nose and anus. The Indians usually
recovered from the first attack; but most frequently this was
followed by a second one, to which they generally succumbed.
Don Pedro Saientz, of Corocoro, informed me that he believed
he had saved a great number of his Indians by compelling them
to bathe daily in a large tank of water.
Both gonorrhoea and syphilis are known amongst the Aymara
Indians, and treated by themselves without foreign medical assist-
ance. Their treatment of syphilis would seem to be attended with
success, since, although it is known to be common, the general
health of the Indians appears to be good, and I have never met
with any instance of an Indian disfigured by the disease. I was
informed, on good authority, that these Indians employ mercury,
both in the metallic form and as a chloride (calomel), in the
vo^- "• Digitized b^ Google
226 David Forbes — On the Aynuara Indians
cure of the disease, and that they now procure these substances
firom the apothecaries or merchants (who sell mercury to the
silver-amalgamating establishments) in the lai^e towns ; as they
are also acquainted with cinnabar, which in several parts of the
country is found in the native state as. a mineral in veins, it has
been surmised that they may also employ this compound of
mercury as a medicine.
Some of the medical men in La Paz assured me that the
Aymara Indians who chew coca are not salivated by mercurial
preparations, even when administered in great excess ; how far
this is correct is worthy of inquiry. It was proposed in La Paz
to employ cocaine to prevent salivation; but there are some
doubts as to whether the substance so called really represents
the true active principle of the coca-leaf.
It would appear probable that syphilis has been known amongst
these Indians from a very early period, because they have in
their language a name for this disease {" Cchaca^usu" UteraUy
translated '^bone-disease'^ Huanti, a bubo), because they are ap-
parently quite familiar with its treatment, and, lastly, from the
occasional occurrence of skulls taken out of graves dating from
a period antecedent to the Spanish conquest, on which may be
seen depressions or scars pronounced by several medical men to
have resulted from syphilitic caries of the bone, and which in
two instances which came under my observation afforded proof
that the disease had been arrested in its progress and new bone
formed during the lifetime of the individual.
A very remarkable circumstance also is, that the Alpaca, an
animal altogether peculiar and confined to these highlands of
Bolivia and Peru, also suffers extensively frx>m a disease which,
in aU its symptoms and effects, appears to be identical with
syphilis in man, and which is treated by the Indians by a pre-
cisely similar mode of cure, consisting principally of inunction
witli mercurial ointment. Several white landed proprietors of
Bolivia and Peru with whom I have frequently spoken upon this
subject, have assured me that the prevalence of this disease is
the sole reason why they have such a repugnance to occupying
themselves with the culture of alpaca wool, which as a commer-
cial speculation, although an extremely lucrative one, has still
been left entirely in the hands of the Indians themselves : the
mortality amongst the alpacas caused by the disease, when not
extremely carefdly treated, is said to be very great indeed ; and
the bones of the diseased animals are stated to be affscted by
caries exactly as in man*^.
* The question whether this disease may hare been communicated finom
the Alpaca to man, or vice versd, is an open one. It is well known, however,
that such unnatural intercourse is common, and that under the Incaa severe
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of Bolivia and Peru. 227
The character of the'Aymaras is a peculiar one, not easy to
describe; they rarely smile or laugh, and always appear to be
sad and serious, reflective, silent, and uncommunicative, in-
tensely suspicious and distrustful, never forming attachments
until after long acquaintance.
Although they are patient under suffering and submissive to
the laws and governing powers, they at bottom possess a dogged
determination which nothing can shake, and which enables them
to support torture and even death rather than confess. In my
own experience, I have seen an Aymara Indian, who stole a mule,
expire under the lash rather than reveal where he had concealed
the animal ; and in former times many an Indian has been tor-
tured or put to death by the Spaniards for not pointing out the
localities of the gold- or silver-mines from which he had pro-
cured these metals.
Impotent as they know thev are at present, there can be no
doubt that the Indian still lives cherishing the hope of one
day crushing his oppressors. With an intense hatred to the white
man, he has if possible a still deeper hatred to the Negro, al-
though at present these latter, who were much more numerous
under the rule of the Spaniards, have since the independence all
but disappeared from the country, or at least from the highlands.
Their hatred to the white was so strong that, during the insur-
rection in 1780 they swore to destroy even all the white animals
in the country, and as far as possible carried this oath into effect.
When, however, the treatment which these Indians have re
ceived at the hands of the Spaniards and their successors is re-
coUected, no one can wonder at the depth of these feelings, or
be surprised at the influence which so many generations of
oppression has had on the original character of the race.
Secretiveness seems also to be a well-developed trait in their
character. The Indian, except possibly on his feast-days, looks as
if reduced to a state of the most abject poverty, if one is to judge
from their clothing, habitations, and mode of living. They, as a
rule, hide all their riches, i. e. their silver or gold, generally bury-
ing it in earthen pots in the ground ; and as the Indians rarely
confess before death, a large part at least of such hoards remain
concealed, although not unfrequently such " tapadas,'' as thej
are called by the Spaniards, are come upon accidentally. It is
also well known that after the battles in the eternal civil wars
of Peru and Bolivia, a large portion of the arms disappear, hav-
ing been carried off by the Indians and concealed by them, no
laws were enacted affainat it. Even after the Spanish conquest, an old law
not permittinK the llama-drivers to start on their joumevs unless accom-
panied by their wives was retained in force ; and this regulation was under-
stood to be intended as a safeguard against such abuses.
DigitizeSb^OOgle
228 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
doubt with a view to their ultimate employment against their
oppressors.
The amount of silver so buried or hidden by the Indians
must be enormous ; for they rarely part with any silver money,
when once it comes into their hands. In later yean, when the
demand for the wool of the alpaca became so great and the
price rose proportionately, the amount of hard cash (Bolivian
silver dollars, which until lately were the only currency in this
part of the world) received by the Indians was extremely large ;
and as the major part of it at once vanished from circulation, it
has been calculated by well-informed merchants of Tacna and
La Paz that more than some ten millions of Bolivian dollars
must in the course of but comparatively few years have been
hidden away by the Indians of the highlands of Peru and Bolivia.
The Aymara Indians seem to have a natural preference for
solitude; and it is strange to come suddenly upon solitary
Indians, as it were ruminating for hours together, when unob-
served, in some out-of-the way spot in the mountains, or to see
the Indian women sitting crouched up the whole day as if mo-
tionless, on the top of some heap of stones or other elevation,
herding their llamas. Often I have sent an Indian to watch the
mules at night, and found him in the morning squatted down on
his haunches with his knees up to his chin and his arms clasped
round his knees (in almost the exact position of a mummy in an
ancient grave), in which position he has remained all night, al-
most without moving, more than to renew his quid of coca-
leaves.
The character of the Aymaras cannot at bottom be bad ; for it
is rare to £nd any of the greater vices much developed amongst
the pure Indians : murder is extremely rare ; and thefk, except
of a very petty character, is not common. I have myself
repeatedly sent Wge sums of money long distances in charge of
a single Indian on foot, but never had occasion to repent of so
doing — although I knew of an instance in which an Indian did
murder another who was carrying a sum of money from Sorata
to the gold-washings of Tipuani. This, however, was quite an ex-
ceptional case i and the arrieros who travel between Tacna and
La Paz, and other parts of the country, often with large amoimts
in money and gold dust, are as a rule never molested, even du-
ring the civil wars which are the curse of this unhappy country.
As servants, the Aymara Indians, to judge from my own ex-
perience, do well as long as they remain in their own district;
but if taken elsewhere they soon get homesick and run away
without notice. When, however, they do form an attachment to
their masters, they are reported to be very faithful, and more
particularly so when brought up from youth ; so that a system
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of Bolivia and Peru. 229
of purchasing or^ rather^ kidnapping young Indians is common^
they being sent to the coast districts or to distant towns, where
they are bought into the families of the landed proprietors or mer-
chants. On several occasions during my residence in Bolivia I
was requested by firiends in Tacna to send them a young Indian
boy as a present, which, although not openly permitted by the
law, is still often done.
Although the Aymara Indian the moment he comes into con-
tact with or is employed by the white at once puts on an expres-
sion of stolid indifference and stupidity far from real, and only
moves step by step, so as religiously, it may be said, to do the
least possible amount of work with which he can escape, he
is far otherwise when amongst themselves; for there he is
seldom or never idle; even the llama-driver as he walks along side
his animals always has his distaff in his hand, spinning coarse
yarn of llama- wool as he goes along; they do not^ as many other
and especially North- American tribes, throw all the burdens on
the women's backs ; and the Indian at home, although never
animated or merry, is apparently sociable and probably even
amiable in his family relations.
They particularly excel in walking, and can keep up on foot
with the quick walk of the mule for a long time and distance.
In March 1860, an Indian on foot accompanied my mule at a
sort of trot, for a distance of twenty-three leagues (69 miles) in
one day ; and the Indians who fetched my letters from La Paz
have on several occasions made the journey to and fro (a reputed
distance of 60 leagues) in three days, during which their only
food would be a small bag of parched Indian corn and another
of coca-leaves ; the post from La Paz to Tacna, a reputed dis-
tance of 250 miles, was during my residence in Bolivia regularly
carried by a single Indian on foot in five days. I have reason,
however, to believe that the extraordinary story given by Dr.
Scherzer, of the Novara expedition, of the custom said to be
prevalent amongst these Indians, of standing on their heads
after such long journeys, in order to allow of the blood return-
ing to the feet*, is somewhat of a hoax played on the learned
Doctor when in Tacna; and, further, I am also inclined ta be-
lieve that the virtues generally attributed to the use of the coca-
* Bd. III. p. 849, when speaking of an Aymara guide who had already
marched 30 leagues on foot, ne adds, '^ fiihlte Herr Campbell, obschon er ein
Tortreffliches Thier geritten, echwer ermiidet; der Fiihrer dagegen, nachdem
er sich einige Minuten anf den Kopf gestellt und ein Glas Brantwein zu sich
genommenhatte, trat unverweilt, ohne waiter auszumhen die Heimreise an;''
and remarks further: *^ £s ist dies cine eben so allgemeine als wunderliche Si tie
der Aymara-Indianer nach langen,be8chwerlichen Marschen,um, wie es scheint
dem Instincte folgend, der gewaltigen Andrang des Blutes nach uuten zu
mUdem."
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230 Datid Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
leaf are very considerably exaggerated in most of the accounts
given by travellers and others, both because I found by expe-
rience various of my Indians who did not use coca to be
equally good walkers, and as capable of enduring fatigue as those
who habitually indulged in it, and because I was assured by
General Belzu (the President of the Republic of Bolivia, and
nearly a pure Indian himself) that, although in the Bolivian
army coca was never allowed to the soldiers, they were
quite as good, if not better walkers than the average of the
other Indians; and as a proof of this I may mention that when
in the months of January and February 1860, owing to a num-
ber of almost simultaneous revolutionary attempts breaking out
in different parts of Bolivia (La Paz, Oruro, and Potosi) at great
distances from one another, the walking-powers of some of the
most reliable companies of infantry were severely taxed in order
to repress these movements, I saw the first battalion of the Boli-
vian army arrive in Biacha in excellent condition, notwithstand-
ing that, upon summing up the lengths of the different marches
they had made during the previous three weeks as detailed to me
by Colonel Flores their commander, it appeared that they must
have maxched on an average during this period something like
forty-five miles English per day ; yet their entire list of casual-
ties only included one man who had dropped dead on the road,
and three left behind from illness.
What the religion of the Aymara Indian at the present time
is, is a question difficult if not impossible for even one of them-
selves to answer definitely ; it seems to be a curious and con-
fused jumble of their ancient Ijelief with some slight admixture
of Christian doctrines. Outwardly the Roman Catholic form of
worship has been forced upon them by the Spaniards ever since
the conquest, the infants being all obliged to be baptized and
named after some saint in the calendar, whether their parents
wish it or not ; and consequently the white inhabitants regard
the whole of the Aymaras as " Indios Christianos,'' in contradi-
stinction to the so-called '^Gentiles " or Pagan Indians, although
it seems quite certain that but very few of these Indians have
any clear conception of what the Christian religion really is.
The worship of the Sun does not seem at any epoch to have
played a prominent part amongst the Aymaras, if even at all
acknowledged by them, before the Incas, after their conquest of
the country, introduced this form of religion, and built temples
on the islands in the Lake of Titicaca dedicated to the sun and
moon. The sun in Aymara is called Lupi, not Inti as among
the Quechuas or Inca race; and in some of the old Spanish wri-
ters it is expressly mentioned that the CoUa Indians were neither
allowed to enter the grand temple of the sun, nor to assist at the
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
oj Bolivia and Peru. 231
ceremonies, being regarded by the Incas in the light of heathens.
Idols seem, however, to have been common with them ; but it
would appear that these idols had more a local signification, i, e.
were regarded more as the guardian saints of the different
districts or places than as representing the universal or almighty
God, who seems to have been at all times, both ancient and mo-
dem, acknowledged by the Aymara Indians, and to whom they
sacrificed and made offerings, especially of their esteemed coca,
as well as poured out libations of chicha, both of which latter
customs they still continue to keep up, in out-of-the-way districts.
They are also equally firm in their belief in the existence of an
evil spirit or devil, whom they appear to think it necessary to
propitiate at times, and call by the names of Aucca, Huantahualla
or Supay; they also believe in several attendant or administer-
ing angels of the devil, one of whom is called by them Cari-
eari, and is supposed to be a messenger sent by the devil to kill
men and remove the fat firom their bodies, for what purpose,
however, I could never get them to explain.
The Aymara, moreover, acknowledges the immortality, or ra-
ther the existence of the soul in the next world, and in ancient
times always buried the dead along with a supply of food and
sometimes clothing to take along with them ; even at the present
day Cortez states that this custom is kept up in certain districts
of Bolivia. Under certain circumstances, it is believed by them
that the souls of the dead may return to this earth ; and it is
known that the Indians of the Puna occasionally put an end to
the sufferings of their relatives when about to die, by strangling
them with a rope, under the impression that by so doing they
can prevent the ghost of the defunct returning to this world to
haunt and trouble them.
The symbol of the cross (always rectangular and equal-sided)
is very common on the ancient Aymara ruins at Tiahuanaco ;
but it seems to have been used only as an ornament, since, not-
withstanding that they now employ the cross as a symbol of
Christianity, and commonly place crosses of wood in a conspi-
cuous position on the roof or at the eaves of their houses, on
the bodies of the dead, and on the graves afterwards, they appear
to do so merely out of fear of the Catholic priests, as they are
always ready to swear by the cross, (or by Jesus Christ or the
Virgin Mary,) yet evidently have not the slightest respect for
such oaths, which they never scruple to break when convenient.
In order to make an oath binding on an Aymara, it is customary,
at least in some districts, for the Alcalde of his community to
lay his staff of office on the ground, and then make the Indian
step over it before giving his declaration.
As a remarkable instance of how in a perverted form some of
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232 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
the doctrines of Christianity may become grafted into the pre-
sent Aymara belief^ I may mention that tibe so-called '' Indio
Christiano ** of the Puna of La Paz still believes that on one day
in the year^ which is Good Friday^ he may commit any crime
short of murder with impunity ; and on this day instances are
known where they have even violated their own daughters in
presence of their mothers^ as I have been assured by a trustwor-
thy Indian of Omasuyos^ who explained at the same time to me
that it could be no sin, as on that day God was dead^ and conse-
quently could not possibly on the next day remember any thing
which happened the day before — ^rather a strange application of
a Christian dogma !
When Roman Catholic churches have been built in this
country, it has not unfrequently been found subsequently that
the Indian masons have concealed in the walls or in the altar it-
self small idols, as if to put the church itself under the protec-
tion of their ancient gods also. The small idols or figures found
in the Indian graves seem to have stood in the same relations to
the Aymaras as the Lares and Penates or household gods amongst
the ancient Romans, and appear to have been kept by each
family in their huts.
The influence exercised by the parish priests over the Aymara
population is an extremely powerM one. This must certainly be
attributed more to a sort of innate sense of duty inherited from
their ancestors, than to any true respect for the present priesthood,
whose morals (or rather want of morals) are not often such as
would engender any great amount of reverence for their cloth.
This power, however, too often exercised to bad purposes, al-
ways seemed to me to be founded more on fear than on any
true respect or love for their spiritual leaders.
I often found it advantageous to avail myself, in my dealings
with the Indians, of the power possessed over them by the
priests. On one occasion, when a number of Indians who had
agreed to carry a heavy and important piece of machinery up an
almost inaccessible path to the mines and had found the task so
difScult as to have at last abandoned it in despair, I as a last re-
source appealed to the parish priest to assist me, which he did
most efl'ectually, by at the next mass ^ving them such a thun-
dering sermon in Aymara, in which he threatened them with all
manner of pains and penalties in this and the next world, that
the Indians in their Mght ran out of the church and did not
return until they had effected my object.
Under the rule of the Incas, and probably even from a much
earlier period, the religion of these Indians had always been in-
timately connected with their fStes or religious feasts; and a
similarity in this respect no doubt greatly facilitated the intro-
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of Bolivia and Peru. 233
duction of the Roman Catholic form of Christian worship
amongst them^ since the Indians did not feel that there was any
very great revolution in the order of things when they still
were allowed to retain their " fiestas/^ which, if somewhat ^tered
as to date, were otherwise more changed in name than in reality,
and most prohably still retain much of the character which they
had even before the Spanish conquest.
The priests were on their side only too glad to encourage the
Indians in these tastes ; for they soon found out that the weak
side of the Indian was his attachment to his feasts, for which
alone he can be induced to part with his money, which otherwise
he would only continue to hoard up, grudging even the most
necessary comforts to himself. Encouraged by the priests, the
Indians of many districts are urged on to a rivalry in getting up
feasts, one more magnificent than the other, all of which natu-
rally puts money into the pockets of the priest himself.
The impression made upon my mind upon first witnessing one
of these feast-days celebrated by the Aymara Indians is quite
inefiaceable. Arriving in the evening at La Paz, in Bolivia,
after a long and wearisome journey of seven days on muleback
from the Pacific coast of Peru, this city (of about 70,000 inhabi-
tants, of which some 40,000 are Indians, whilst the remainder
consists of the Cholada, and still fewer whites of a rather dusky
tint in general) seemed to me, at least that evening, very much
like some of the older towns in Southern Spain. Next morning,
however, which (unknown to me) happened to be a feast-day, my
slumbers were broken by music of an unearthly but certainly
not heavenly character, and I beheld the streets filled with
troops of Indians, men and women, dancing energetically to the
accompaniment of numerous drums, pandean pipes, Indian
flutes, and long trumpets, which together produced a most
dolefal and monotonous sound, loud enough indeed, but hardly
entitled to the appellation of music. The Indians themselves
were attired in the most grotesque costumes : many of the men
had enormous head-dresses of ostrich- or condor-feathers, often
dyed of various colours, some erect and others drooping down so
as entirely to conceal the head; others had masks representing
the heads of animals, or were attired in the hides of oxen with
the horns projecting from their heads, whilst many had cuirasses
made of the skin of the jaguar, or American tiger, as it is com-
monly called. The women were decked out in all their finery ;
and many had enormous bunches of flowers himg as if from their
ears, but actually supported by being looped up on each side by
their pigtails of hair, or had similar pendants of oranges,
lemons, red-pepper pods, or ring-shaped cakes iucrusted with
sugar.
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234* David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
The effect altogether was most extraordinary and surprising,
especially from the great contrast between the appearance of the
Indians themselves and the almost European buildings and streets
in which they moved ; for it seemed like a dream to behold them
occupied by so incongruous a population.
In the vicinity of the towns^ the Indians on these occasions
usually crowd in, and pass the first day perambulating the streets
with their music and dancing before the various churches and
in the squares of the town ; afterwards they generally retire to
their own hamlets, where they continue their diversions during
the remaining feast-days.
These diversions are kept up, without any interruption, day and
night, as long as the feast continues, or until the Indians literally
drop down from sheer exhaustion or intoxication. It is perfectly
astonishing, however, to observe how long both the men and wo-
men can, hour after hour, without any cessation, keep on dancing
round and round like lunatics, whilst all the time not a smile
can be perceived on their countenances, which, on the contrary,
never indicate the slightest trace of excitement or hilarity, but
retain the same sad and melancholy expression characteristic of
their features in their most serious moods. In fact, the Aymara
Indians are a paradox ; for they seem to amuse themselves with-
out ever appearing gay, and to dance without becoming ani-
mated.
On these occasions also it is common to find the Indians
burlesquing any new fashion which may come into vogue amongst
the whites: thus, for example, when the use of crinoline became
introduced amongst the ladies of La Paz, this custom was imme-
diately caricatured by Indians, who danced at their feasts in
would-be imitations of enormous volume.
The name's day of the patron saint of the town or village is
always kept in great style by the Indians, who, no doubt, recog-
nize in it the feasts which their ancestors celebrated in honour of
their local gods or saints. Besides the usual f^tes common to
the Roman Catholic religion, some, which are held by the Indians
under the auspices of the priests, appear to have been introduced
into the calendar after the Spanish conquest, no doubt for the
sake of securing the goodwill of the Indians and facilitating their
adoption of Christianity, by allowing them to hold religious
feasts corresponding, or nearly so, to their ancient ones. This
appears, for example, to be the case with the '^ Fiesta de la
Cruz,'' held in La Paz on the third and following days of May,
which I am informed is not known in other parts of the CathoUc
world, and which is evidently only a replacement of the great
feast called " Aimoray" held in this month by the Indians before
the arrival of the Spaniards.
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of Bolivia and Peru. 235
On St. John's eve it is usual to see bonfires lighted on the hills^
and even in the streets of La Paz ; but I cannot say whether this
custom has been introduced by the Spaniards or was prevalent
before the conquest.
The three days of the carnival are a great time amongst the
Indians in all parts of the country, as also the feast of Corpus
Christi, which is specially celebrated in the towns by the erection
of huge altars in the plaza or before the churches, covered by
coloured cloths, and decorated by pictures of the saints, mirrors,
bunches of firuit, and by all the valuables which the Indians pos-
sess or can borrow for the occasion. The Indians vie with each
other in the size of these altars, which are frequently several
stories in height, and occasionsdly so carelessly put together
(being constructed only of wooden poles tied together with
ropes made of llama-wool) that they tumble down during the
ceremony, and sometimes cause the loss of life in their ruins.
The Indians themselves make great preparations for these
feasts, which may be regarded as their only luxuries ; they will
not part with money, if th^ can help doing so, except in the pur-
chase of materials for the decoration or brandy to be consumed
at them. Rich Indians have been known to spend even some
hundred dollars for fireworks, and they pay highly for the fea-
thers of the condor or ostrich for their head-dresses, — as much,
for example, as nine dollars for a jaguar skin, of which they
make their ornamental cuirasses worn in the dances.
These feasts are attended with great drunkenness and im-
morality^, and, as might be expected, frequently end in fights,
in which sometimes, but very seldom, lives may be lost. In the
villages, the priest, when at hand, is usually appealed to in such
disputes ; and it has amused me to see the summary mode in
which the holy (but often rather unsteady) man administers
justice, by laying about him promiscuously with a heavy pair of
tapir-skin reins, or any other thing at hand, to the dire confusion
of the Indians around.
At these feasts in the towns, or at the celebration of some
national event, bullfights are occasionally arranged by the autho-
rities of the district; as, however, they have no bull-rings, the
animals are simply let loose in the square {plaza) , and allowed
to be tormented by the Indians, without any further ceremony
or precautions being taken than the temporary erections which
* In the midflt of the dances men and women are frequently seen to ex-
change head-gear, by which is understood a mutual arrangement to become
partners for the night of the feast. The Indians, however, are not a lascivious
race in general, aluiough Dr. Cooke informs me that this was due only to
their rarely removing their garments at night, sleeping completely clothed,
and usually all the family together, on the earthen noor of their huts.
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236 Dayid Fokbes — On the Aymara Indians
most of the dwellers around put up in all haste, in order to pro-
tect their doors and windows, and enable them to look on in
safety. As might be expected, lives are often lost, when the
enraged bulls charge at the Indians and Cholos, who irritate
them on all sides, and who are often too much excited by drink
to take much care of themselves. At Achecache and other
towns in the Puna it is common on these occasions for the Indians
to bring forward and set at liberty wild animals, such as vicufias,
foxes, viscachos, wild rabbits, &c., the smaller animals being
placed in holes made in the groimd and loosely covered over
by stones, which, on being kicked aside by the bull in its
charges, allow them to jump out, to the great delight of the
spectators.
The Aymara Indian is extremely superstitious, and is a firm
believer in omens and witchcraft *. I am told that they have a
custom, similar to what in Europe was common up to a very recent
date, of making small images of clay of those whom they wish to
injure, which, after piercing through with a thorn, they leave in
some out-of-the-way place, believing that the individual in ques-
tion will then suffer as long as the thorn remains sticking in the
effigy.
They also have the idea that the possessor of any part of the
body, or any thing pertaining to them, can, as long as he holds
it, exercise an influence for good or evil over them. For this *
reason I found it very difficult toobtain samples of the Indian
hair for comparison. This was more particularly the case with
the men, who could not be persuaded, like the women, that you
might like to keep it as a memento.
To cut off the pigtail of an Indian is one of the heaviest
punishments which can be inflicted on him. On two occasions,
in which this was done for theft, the Indians offered what to
them was a very large sum to obtain the severed pigtail back
again. An Indian whose hair has been cut short is always
regarded with great suspicion by his comrades, and rarely
admitted afterwards to their society or confidence. In like
manner I found it, in some out-of-the-way districts, occasionally
very difficult to persuade them to sit for their photograph or
portrait, as they always retained the idea that the possessor of
even their likeness must retain some power over them.
When the Indian is about' to commence any undertaking,
such as building a house, marking his llamas, or starting upon
a journey, he always puts great faith in what he considers
* It occasionally happens that individuals supposed to practise witchcraft
have been put to death with terrible tortures by the Indians of the remote
districts. This is also the case amongst the Pampa Indians.
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of Bolivia and Peru. 237
good or bad omens (such as the appearance of the heavens, the
flight of birds, dreams, &c.), and usually pours out a propitiatory
libation of chicha, brandy, or even water^ before banning his
labours *.
When the Indians in 1854 were arranging their plans for a
general rising against the whites, one of them, on his death-bed^
confessed to the parish priest that the insurrection had been
deferred because the omens had been unfavourable, and informed
him that a council of the principal Indians had selected three
llamas, one of each colour, white, black, and brown, which were
respectively intended to represent the white, black, and Indian
races, and had forced them to swim across the river Have, which
runs with a rapid current into the Lake of Titicaca, on its western
side. The white llama got across all right, the black managed
also to do so, but was so exhausted as to drop down dead upon
reaching the shore, whilst the third, or brown llama, was carried
away by the stream and drowned. From this result the Indians
had drawn the conclusions that the white race was still too
powerful, that the blacks were not to be feared, and would soon
die out, but that the Indians must wait longer, since they were
not as yet so strong as their white masters. The outbreak of
the *^ Peste''' epidemic soon after, and the great mortality caused
by it amongst the Indians, contributed to make them respect
this verdict.
As a means of freeing themselves from the " Peste/' the In-
dians of some districts (in 1857) loaded a black llama with the
clothes of the infected persons, sprinkled them with brandy, and
then turned the animal loose on to the mountains, in the vain hope
that it would carry the disease off along with it.
When an animal, as a cow or llama, is killed by lightning,
they regard it as a mark of the displeasure of Ood, and carry the
carcass to the summit of some neighbouring hill, where they
bury it, placing along with it, at the same time, an earthen jar
of chicha or aguardiente, apparently as a peace-offering to Ood.
Upon arriving at the top of a steep hill, the Uamero, as the
llama-driver is called, commonly places a stone upright, or lean-
ing against the side of the hill, as a token of thanksgiving for
having arrived so far with his llamas without their having been
knocked up by fatigue. All along the roads, or rather tracks,
especially in the higher and little-inhabited parts, numerous
heaps or cairns are encountered, often of very considerable di-
* The Indian fishen, before commencing operations, drink a little of the
water with reverence, and mutter a prayer. When rain is desired^ it is
said that they often make little images of frogs and other aquatic animalB,
and place them on the top of the hills, aa a means of bringing down rain by
propitiating their deities.
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238 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
mensions (where loose stones are abundant in the yicinity) ; these
are called apachetas; and the Indian^ when he passes them^ in-
variably adds a stone ; and if he has his quid of coca in his mouthy
he takes it out and throws it against the cairn, on which he
occasionally sticks feathers or places one or more of his leather
sandals, and mutters some words, probably a prayer. When
he passes these cairns, the Indian is sometimes seen to pull a
hair or two out of his eyebrows or eyelashes, and, placing them
before his mouth, to blow them away in the direction of the sun,
probably as an offering. As these cairns or apachetas were con-
sidered remnants of Pagan worship, the Lima Council pronounced
against them''^; but I regard them as originally instituted to
mark the line of road.
When travelling from Tacna to La Paz, I noticed, on the Bo-
livian side of the Pass of Huaylillos (14,650 feet above the sea),
numbers of small erections, put together with loose stones, and
upon inquiry was informed, by the arrieros, that these were put
up by the Indian Uameros when descending to Tacna with their
loads, and that upon their return they examined them, in order
to see whether they still remained standing, in which case they
regarded them as proofs of their wives having remained faithful
to them during their absence, and the contrary if the stones had
tumbled down.
Some of these are sketched in PI. XXI. fig. 2. A glance at
the style of some of these little erections makes one almost fancy
oneself capable of distinguishing between the characters of the
men who had put them up. The confident husband would no
doubt content himself with putting one or two stones on
the top of one another, so as to be not easily displaced;
whilst the anxiety or jealousy of another would be likely to tempt
him to still further risk his own happiness by erecting a flimsy
structure in two or three stories, very likely to be upset acci-
dentally.
I am sorry to add that my muleteer, a Cholo or half-breed,
who, by-the-by, are almost as much hated by the pure Indians
as the whites themselves, before I could expostulate with him,
backed his mule purposely so as to kick over a number of these
little structures, remarking with malicious delight, '' Won^t there
be a row when those fellows get home again.''
The Aymara Indians celebrate the birth of an infant, as also
marriages, but, curiously enough, appear (although they have
the verb marmasifia, from marmi, a woman) to have no word in
their language to signify the act of marriage, and always use the
Spanish substantive " casamiinto " and the verb " casdr" putting
to the latter an Aymara termination, thus: — '^ ccLsarasina, to
* EI Concilio Limense segundo, in su parte 2*, capitiilo 20.
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o/ Bolivia and Peru. 289
marry oneself; '^ casararla/^ to marry one to another, i.e. per-
form the ceremony of marriage ; and casarayarla, to make to
marry, or give in marriage.
Although the ancient Aymaras had their fiemaily or tribal
places of burial, as may be seen in the islands of Lake Titicaca,
Caranhas, &c., the Indian at present seems to be quite indif-
ferent as to where a corpse may be buried, interring it anywhere
most convenient, and not troubling themselves to transport it
any distance for the sake of burying it in holy ground. In the
various instances which I have witnessed they place the corpse,
in its clothes, lengthways in an ordinary grave, dug out appa-
rently in any convenient direction, the hands being tied (at the
wrist) across the breast, and a cross, made of a couple of twigs
tied together, placed on the body. On the grave itself a simple
wooden cross is placed, probably only out of deference to the
priests.
In ancient times, however, the position of the body in the
tomb {chulpa or kuaca) or grave was always that which the
infant had originally occupied in its mother's womb, the knees
being drawn up to the chin and the arms placed crosswise over
the breast — the whole usually sewed in a species of sack, gene-
rally made of a species of grass {ichu) or of reeds {Totora)
sewn together. In the chulpas at Carahuara in Caranhas, I was
informed by Messrs. Bode and Savalla that the mummies there
are all found in baskets, and, curiously enough, have invariably
a stone about 5 inches in length placed in ano. In some parts
the chulpas are square towers, about 14 feet high, and from
7 to 8 feet on each side, btdlt of unbumt sun-dried clay, tem-
pered with straw; those at Palca had, I found, their sides placed
in the direction of the cardinal points of the compass ; at many
other parts, as in Caranhas and around the Lake of Titicaca,
they are built of stone, and round as weU as square in shape ;
several of these have been figured and described by Mr. Squier
in his memoir on the primeval monuments of Peru* •
High up on the sides of the mountain Illampu, more com-
monly known as the Nevado de Sorata I found (in 1861), at
Marcomarcani, at an elevation of more than 16,000 feet above
the level of the sea, two graves within a few feet of one another,
on a narrow ridge connecting two great spurs of this mountain ;
both of these were about 4 feet deep, quite empty, and lined
with stone waUs neatly put together : the one had a direction
nearly east and west, was 3 feet 8 inches long and I foot 8 inches
wide in the centre, but tapered to each end, which was only 15
inches wide; the direction of the other was about north-east
* The American Naturalist, vol. iv. 1870.
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240 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
and soath-west, and its shape a rectangle 5 feet long by 1 foot
in breadth. No tower or other erection appeared to have marked
their site.
OecasionaUy^as in the island of Quebaya^in the Lake of Titacaca
and elsewhere in that district^ the chnlpas or burial-towere have
two or even more stories^ as if the chamber in each story was
intended for the interment of a different member of the same
family. In some districts^ as in Caranhas, these monuments
are so abundant as even to form what might be termed villages
of the dead. Many of these graves have been opened and ran-
sacked for the gold and silver articles which they so often con-
tain, as it was the general custom to bury along with the corpse
articles of pottery, wood, and metal, especially small imagea or
figures of men and animals made of gold, silver, or copper. A
gold ornament, represented in PL XXI. fig. . 1, evidently in-
tended to be worn round the neck, was found in a chulpa near
Corocoro, along with a silver spoon-shaped ornament called a
" pichi '^ (PI. XXI. fig. 11) , such as at present are worn by almost
all the Indian tribes of the Pacific coast down to Araucania ;
mace-heads of magnetic oxide of iron occurred in some of these
tombs ,- but the most curious article which came under my notice
during my residence in the country was the small solid silver
image represented in fiill size in PI. XX. figs. 1 a and b. This was
placed in my hands by M. Ramon Doux, who took it out of a
chulpa in Caquinhora, about four leagues from Corocoro, in the
department of La Paz, Bolivia. What makes this figure ex-
tremely interesting is the fact that it has in its left hand what
appears to be a telescope, or rather a tube, evidently intended
to assist the vision, since the one end of it is held to the eye,
whilst the other is apparently directed to the heavens. Although,
like the rest of the figure, this part also is of solid silver, and
not really tubular, there can be no doubt that it was in-
tended to represent a tube, since the outer end is hollowed out.
The right hand of the figure holds a mask, as if this had been
just removed from the face in order to permit of the telescope
being brought up to the eye. The features and proportions of
this figure, the aquiline nose, long body, short thigh, and long
legs, are quite characteristic of the Aymara ; the peculiar head-
dress may possibly indicate the rank of chieftain or priest, whilst
the instrument held to the eye would indicate that the use of
some such tubular arrangement to assist the vision was known
to these Indians at a very early period.
The custom of burying things with the dead was carried on
long after the Spanish conquest, and is, as before mentioned,
not altogether extinct in the present day. A wooden chicha
cup given to me by Mr. Thackeray, who obtained it fix)m an old
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AVMARA IMAGES. POTTCHY tc.
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of Bolivia and Peru. 241
tomb near Piino, on Lake Titicaca^ is inlaid with figures painted
like mosaic^ in red^ green^ and yeliow^ evidently representing
the arrival of the Spaniards in their vessels ; and another wooden
cnp^ also in my possession^ of probably much more recent date^
has^ standing up inside from the bottom^ rude projecting figures
of the heads of two oxen yoked together^ and is the only ex-
ample of one turned in a lathe which I have seen in any of the
graves. Both of these must naturally have been made subse-
quently to the arrival of the Spaniards^ who first brought homed
cattle and turning-lathes into Peru. These chicha-cups were
apparently filled and emptied by those at the funeral to the me-
mory of the dead^ and then thrown into the grave. They are ,
venr commonly found of pottery also.
It is now a matter of (Ufficulty^ if not an impossibility, to tell
with any certainty what the dress of the Aymara Indian was
before tne Spanish conquest. The only article of costume which
is without doubt of thoroughly ancient origin, is the woollen
poncho, which appears, however, to have been in general use
amongst all the South- American tribes on the Pacific, from New
Oranada down to Araucania, even from the oldest times ; all
the other articles of clothing at present employed by these
Indians are of much more douotful origin.
In the Aymara highlands the men wear on their heads a large-
brimmed hat, made (apparently felted) of llama wool, or, pre-
ferablv, vicuna wool, of the natural colour of the animal. Under
this they generally have one or even more knitted woollen caps,
like old-fashioned night-caps. As before mentioned, the Aymara
has no care for his feet, however inclement the weather may be ;
but he takes every care of his head, often placing two, and I
have even seen at times three, of such woollen caps one over the
other. Sometimes these are made so as even to reach over the
face, leaving orifices for the eyes, nose, and mouth; such I
have seen occasionallv in Norway or the Welsh Mountains.
The body is protected by a coarse shirt of unbleached white
llama or sheep's wool, whilst the legs are clothed in a sort of
breeches or drawers made of black or white llama wool, which
reach down to the knees, below which the leg is nearly always
bare, the sole of the feet alone being protected by a sandal,
called cjota or usuta, of leather, usually made from the skin of the
neck of the llama, which, together with the thongs which hold it
on, is cut out of one piece. Stockings are rarely seen, even among
the well-to-do Indians, and, when used, generally have no feet,
reaching but to the ankle. Over all is the universal poncho,
generally only a square piece of cloth of undyed, usually black,
Uama wool, with a slit in the centre to put the head throuojli.
The Uamcros commonly carry in their hand a short wooden
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242 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
whip, the handle of which ia somewhat ingeniously inlaid
diagonally with strips of lead, which look like silver, and makes
it extremely heavy and almost as formidable as a life-preserver*.
The women, when at home, go about bareheaded, their long
black hair being plaited into two pigtails, which hang down one
on each side of the back. Next the skin they wear a chemise
of wool or cotton, over which from the waist downwards
hangs a short petticoat, made of thick woollen stuff, black or
deep-blue in colour. Across the shoulders they throw an oblong
piece of coarse black llama-wool serge or of baize, which is dyed
of the brightest colours, as orange, red, yellow, blue, or green,
and fastened in front with the ''pichi,^' a sort of spoon-
shaped ornament usually made of silver. Two of these are often
seen, one on each side of the breast, sometimes of very great
dimensions ; the handles, being pointed, serve as bodkins, whilst
the other end or bone is very commonly used as a spoon when
eating. This ornament is not confined to the Aymaras, being
used by most of the Indian races of Western South America^
and is shown in PI. XXI. fig. II.
The women are nearly always barefooted, being but rarely
seen with stockings or with sandals like the men.
Like the fair sex in many more civilized countries, the Aymara
women seem to consider it a special beauty to appear more than
ordinarily massive about the launches, notwithstanding that
naturally they are far from being deficient in this respect;
when in full dress, as at their feasts, they consequently do not
fail to place thick woollen skirts one over another, the number
being a mark of the wealth of the lady, until their actual dimen-
sions are wonderfully exaggerated.
When at their feasts or on a joumev, the women wear a
peculiarly shaped hat {montera), generally made of black or
dark-blue cloth or velvet lined with some red stuff. It is in the
form of a cylinder, or rather a cone, expanded greatly at the top,
the lower part for a short distance cylindrical, fitting dose on to
the head, whilst the upper part is turned down in the form of
a square, so that the part turned down has the appearance of
flaps hanging down on to the face on all four sides. I at first
imagined that this peculiar head-dress might be a remnant of
their ancient costume, but was told by General Sagamaga, of
La Paz, that he believed that it was derived from an old Spanish
woman's head-dress long ago introduced into Peru.
Neither men nor women are cleanly in their habits, rarely
removing their clothes at night, often leaving them on until
* The lead is secured by cutting grooves into the whip-handle, wider at
the bottom than at the 8ur!ace^ after which melted lead is poured into them,
and fixes itself in when cold«
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oj Bolivia and Peru. 243
worn to pieces ; and even then some of the Indians would draw
their new pair of breeches over the old ones^ allowing the latter
to remain on the body. They sleep on the ground or earthen floor
of their huts^ or on a sort of bench of earth raised some eighteen
inches above the ground — their only bed-clothes being a few
skins^ and a poncho (or thick quilt) of llama wool^ called ccanieri.
The food of the Aymara Indian is much more of a vegetable
than animal character. Of the flesh which he consumes^ that of
the llama is the most important; but from my own experience I
did not consider it well flavoured^ except when the animal was
only about a year old, when they are called chuchos by the
Indians. A considerable quantity of the llama flesh is prepared
by being sprinkled with salt and air-dried, and is then known as
charqtd. A very important article of consumption and of export
to the mining-districts and the coca-plantations and gold-work-
ings to the east are the '^ chalonas " or dried mutton, being the
whole sheep, which, after being skinned and the head removed,
is split open, flattened out, and dried in the air, after having
been sprinkled with a little salt. Beef is rarely seen or con-
sumied by the Indians, who often keep a few domestic fowls.
Around the Lake of Titicaca many wild fowl and a good supply
of their eggs are obtained, as well as some nine species of fish,
several of which are excellent eating, especially the boga, which
in taste and appearance much resembles a smaU herring or large
sardine.
Salt is obtained by the Indians from springs which have their
origin in the saliferous marls, probably of triassic age, the water
being allowed to run into clay moulds and spontaneously evapo-
rate, the operation being repeated until cakes of salt, about one
foot square and some three inches thick, are left behind, and are
of tolerably good quality.
As before mentioned, however, the staple of the Aymara food
are the vegetable productions of his country, a summary of which
may be given as follows* : — ^potatoes of several varieties, in-
* The above are such productions as are either peculiar to the highlands
or are there grown by the Indians for their own use ; for I may mention
that it is eztraordinaiy, when examining the markets, say of La Paz or Sorata,
where the snow lies close at hand all the year round on the peaks, to ob-
serve the extraordinary admixture of tropical products from the hot valleys
below with the alpine ones peculiar to the district itself: thus, in addition
to the above, there are abundant supplies in the markets of oranges, sweet
and soar lemons, Umes, paltos (fruit of the Laurua penica), banimas, nine-
apples, prickly pears, granadillas, pacays (pod of a S|>ecie6 of inga), cneri-
moyos (nruit of tne Jiuma cheremoha), sweet potatoes, rice, yam, gualusa, ari-
coma or yacona, &c., as well as (from the intermediate xones) strawberries,
grapei^ melons, pears, apples, and peaches ; but, with the exception possibly of
some ill-looking small ^preen apples and pears, few of these products ever
reach the hut of the Indian.
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244 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
eluding the Papa amarga or bitter potato^ called '4uki cheque'' iu
Aymara ; maize or Indian com ; beans ; ocas^ called in Aymara
'^apilla/' ullucos, the tubers of the Ulluctts tuberosa; onions;
garlic ; chichchipa^ a variety of fennel ; quinoa^ the Peruvian
rice or seeds of Chenopodium quinoa ; ysano^ the tuber of the
Tropaolum tuberosum ; chuchuchu, a freshwater plant from the
Lake of Titicaca ; and several other minor vegetables, including
the soft white lower part of the Totora or great Titicaca reed,
which is eaten as a salad.
Here I may remark that not only have the peculiarities of
the country inhabited by the Aymara Indians determined to a
great extent the nature of their nourishment^ but, particularly
those of altitude and climate, have also exercised a great in-
fluence upon the methods found necessary to be employed
for the culinary preparation and conservation of many of the
articles of food.
Owing to the great elevation which this part of South
America has above the mean level of the sea, it follows that the
atmospheric pressure is greatly diminished, and consequently
that the temperature of water when boiling is very much lower
or, in other words, less hot than on the coast — ^in fact, so much
so that several ordinary articles of consumption cannot be tho-
roughly cooked even by prolonged boiling with water in an
ordinary open pot. For this reason the diy small beans which
elsewhere in South America are almost everywhere the fa-
vourite and one of the principal articles of food, especially of
the lower classes, for the reason that they cannot be thoroughly
boiled in the whole state, are not used in any quantity, and
are always first ground to fine powder before being cooked.
Peas have to be treated in a similar manner, as also the dry maixe
or Indian com ; so that before every hut there is always seen an
Indian grinding-apparatus, ^'parara'' (it cannot be called a mill),
which only consists of two rough stones, the lower being a heavy
one fixed in the ground^ with a flat smooth surface upwards,
whilst the other is a semicircular piece, which is rocked in see-
saw fashion by the Indian women^ so as to crush up the sub-
stance placed beneath it.
I remember the delight of a Bolivian family in La Paz upon
their first trying a cooking-pot made with a lid so arranged as
to convert it into a sort of digester, and thus to raise consider-
ably the boiling-point of its contents^ which had been sent up
from the coast as a present^ and which they found did enable
them to cook beans^ &c. thoroughly in their whole state. On
another occasion, when on an exploring-expedition, accompanied
by two arrieros fh)m the coast who had never before been very
high up in the mountains, I left them with the mules at an de-
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of Bolivia and Peru. 345
▼ation of about 17^000 feet, to make a fire and prepare their
meals, whilst I ascended higher on foot; on my return, some
hours after, I found them in a good state of fear and excitement,
insisting that we should at once leave a place which must be
bewitched, since they could not get a dish of beans cooked,
notwithstanding that they had seen the water in the pot boiling
away lustily for several hours.
The potato, which is cultivated on a large scale by the
Aymaras, and forms the most important article of their food, is,
owing to the severity of their climate in these highlands, often
frozen before its tuber has arrived at maturity — a circumstance
which has given rise to its being subjected to a preservative
mode of treatment quite unknown in other countries, and well
worthy of being imitated, particularly in the northern parts of
Europe, where the summers are short and severe.
The method of preparing the potatoes to convert them into
'' chunu^^ (or '' chuno," as it is called in Spanish) is, as far as I
could observe, somewhat as follows, although I understand that
there are minor differences in the procedure in almost every
district. The potatoes, after being dug out of the ground, are,
in the months of May and June, steeped in or sprinkled with
water, and spread out on a thin layer of straw (ichu) placed on
the ground. They are then exposed to the frost, turning them
occasionally by hand some three or more nights and days con-
secutively, until they are quite frozen throughout their substance.
During the congelation they become covered with blisters filled
with a watery fluid, and when thawed have a somewhat spongy
consistence. They are now steeped in water, and trampled out
by men's feet to remove all soluble matter, after which they are
spread out in the air until perfectly dried, when they are ready for
use, and known in the market as black chuno or chufio negro^.
When thus prepared the potatoes are much reduced in volume,
being shrivelled up to the size of about musket-balls, of a some-
what deep-brown colour and not very inviting appearance. The
white chu&o (or "ttunta,'' as it is called in Aymara), which is
much better, in outward look at least, both when raw and boiled,
is prepared in the same way, except that after the potatoes have
been frozen they are steep^ in water for from two to four weeks,
changing the water frequently, or, what is better, allowing a
current of clean water continually to run through them, after
which they are dried as before ; when cut through they show a
* It must be remembered that the climate of these highlands is verr fa-
vourable to carrying out this operation, both from the night frosts ana the
diying-quaUty of the air itself, which very rapidly removes all the water
from iJie chunos by evaporation, and in a very short time completely dries
them up into hard balls.
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246 David Forbes — On the Asmara Indians
thin tough external skin^ filled with a white matter exactly like^
and in actuality nothing more^ than a form of potato-starch.
In this state both the varieties of chuiio will keep for any length
of time, even for years, if only stored in a tolerably dry place,
and require merely to be steeped in water (the white for about a
day and a half, and the black for £rom four to eight days) in order
to soften them, after which they are boiled like an ordinary potato
before being eaten. Although the white chuiio when cooked
looks extremely tempting, being in external appearance of a pure
white colour, even more enticing than a nice new potato, I never
got quite reconciled to its taste, as it always seemed, at least to
me, somewhat soapy ; and, with the Indians themselves, I agree
in preferring the cheaper or more common black chuiio (or
merely chuno, as it is called, in contradistinction to the other, to
which the name "ttunta*^ is, as before mentioned, applied),
which is free from this savour, and, although somewhat insipid
and crisp in the mouth, has a taste which, even if not at first
relished, one soon acquires a liking for.
The theory of this process appears to be a purely chemical
one. When the potato, which is mainly composed of potato-
starch, along with a small amount of gluten or other such nitro-
genous compound, becomes frozen, upon thawing a species of
decomposition or fermentation is immediately set agoing, the
nitrogenous ingredient acting the part of yeast or ferment, and
changing a portion of the starch first into dextrine and then
into sugar, which explains the sweet taste recognized when
potatoes which have been touched by the firost are eaten. This
fermentation, when once it has conmienced, proceeds rapidly to
putrefaction, and destroys the potato. The Aymara Indian, how-
ever, without understanding the rationale of his procedure, has
found out the means to arrest the fermentation in its first stage,
by dissolving out the dextrine, sugar, and nitrogenous ferment,
leaving the potato-starch alone behind in a form but little
susceptible of further alteration as long as it is kept dry; and by
this means is enabled to keep the farinaceous matter of the
root for an indefinite period.
The object of the Indian in thoroughly fireezing his potatoes
before washing out the soluble matter, appears to be to get
the whole of the nitrogenous matter into a state capable of
being washed out by the water, and so prevent any germs of
fermentation being left behind.
It has always struck me as very remarkable, that the uncid-
tivated Indian could thus have invented a process, founded on
the most correct chemical principles, which has enabled him to
use and conserve as food the frozen potato, which otherwise
would be quite worthless, had not this discovery converted it
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(4 Bolivia and Peru. 247
into his moat valuable article of food^ espedaUy during the
winter months^ and without which he would not only not have been
able to reap the fiill benefit of his most important harvest, but
also could not have availed himself of a variety of this esculent^
the Papa amarga, or bitter potato^ which is not regarded as edible
until after it has been converted into chuno.
The bitter potato (or " luki choque/^ as it is called in Ay-
mara) is a very important vegetable for the Indian, since it
grows well in the very coldest parts of the highlands, which
will not produce any other crop. Whether it is a different
species, or merely a variety of the common potato, I was not
sufficient botanist to decide; but the only external difference
which I noticed was, that the tuber appeared to be somewhat
longer and flatter than the small round ones of the ordinary
potato grown in the district, and that the plant had a blue
instead of the more usual white flower. It is not cultivated or
eaten by the whites ; and I have eaten it only in the state of
chuno. I am told, however, that it has only a very slightly
bitter taste, but that this taste cannot be removed even by pro-
longed boiling, which also does not render it soft like the ordi-
nary potato. I am uncertain whether the Aymaras ever eat it
in its natural state when simply boiled; but converted into
chuno it has no unpleasant taste, and is a very important
article of their consumption.
Several varieties of the ordinary potato, " cheque," are cul-
tivated by the Aymaras ; but none of them appear to attain to
any size, probably never coming to full maturity in this climate;
the wild potato, called '' lillecoya,'' also occurs. The Aymara
women understand the boiling a potato in their earthen pots to
full perfection. Occasionally the ordinary potato is preserved by
being dried in the air, after having been first boiled and peeled.
It is then called '' cucupa" by the Indians.
The oca (or " apilla" in Aymara) is another root, well suited
to the climate, much cultivated by the Indians, and is the tuber
of the Oxalis tuberosa, of which several varieties, red and white,
are grown. The white, called queni-apilla, or floury ocas, are the
best. As I can testify, this root when simply boiled is hard and
}ui8 a horrid acid taste, — ^in fact, is quite unfit for consumption,
unless it also has undergone a previous preparation. Tins is
effected by the Indians by exposing the ocas to the sun and air
for firom six to twelve days, which causes, as it were, a species
of ripening, after which the oca, when boiled, is a very agreeable
farinaceous vegetable.
If exposed in this maimer for a much longer period (several
weeks, or even months, is, I believe, necessary), taking care not
to let them fireeze, they become still sweeter, and taste very
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248 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
much like sweet potatoes. In this state they are called ''caui/'
and should not be boiled in water^ but merely steamed. The
Indians cook them by placing them on the top of a pot full of
straw^ with a little water at the bottom^ to which they apply the
heat. Another preparation of the oca is called '' caya/' and is
obtained by freezings and treating them much in the same
manner as in the preparation of chuno from potatoes, as before
described. Although much esteemed by the Indians, this sub-
stance did not quite suit my palate.
As another example of how the culinary preparation of the
articles of food used by these Indians has been influenced by
the peculiarities of the climate, may be mentioned the ^'isimu/'
the tubercle of the Tropaolum tuberosum, a variety of Indian
cress or nasturtium, cultivated particularly about La Paz. When
removed firom the ground, this is so acrid and nasturtium-like in
its flavour as to be imeatable, or at any rate unpalatable ; here,
however, they eat the boiled tuber in a frozen state, when it
possesses a very agreeable taste, and is much appreciated by
the whites also, being sold frozen, kept from thawing by being
wrapped up in woollen cloths, and covered with straw, under
the name of " taiacha.*'
Another important article of food is the quinoa {hupa in
Aymara), the seeds of the Chenopodium quinoa, or Peruvian
rice, as it is sometimes called. These are exactly of the form
and size of an ordinary mustard-seed, and are of a red, yellow, or
white colour in different varieties of the plant. The seeds
must always be first well washed with water, to remove a bitter
principle they contain, before cooking. When boiled, they make
an excellent porridge or pudding. The leaves of the young
plant are eaten as salad ; and a sort of chicha or fermented drink
is also made frxim the seed, called '' hupaccusa.''
Beans are cultivated to a considerable extent, but are always
ground to powder on the stone before being cooked, or are
eaten whole after having been parched over the fire in a pot.
Indian com or maize does not grow in the puna and higher
lands, but in the sheltered valleys grows well, and is largely
bought by the highland Indians, who exchange their dried
llama- and sheep-meat, wool, salt, and chuno for Indian com.
When dried, it is either ground up or toasted, in which latter
state a small bag of it is usually the entire sustenance taken by
the travelling Indian. Several varieties are known, amongst
which a sweet, shrivelled- up, semitransparent, yellow one, called
"chulqui,'' is especially esteemed for eating raw or parched; an-
other variety, of a mulberry colour, is called '' culli,'' and often
used to give a colour to their drinks.
The beverages employed by the Aymara are but few in
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o/ Bolivia and Peru. 249
number ; and, except on grand occasionsj the pure water from
his native hilla quenches his thirst. His national drink is the
chicha, made from the Indian com fermented, called in Aymara
^* ccusa.'' It is made in different ways; but the most esteemed
is the so-called '' chicha mascada,'' or chewed chicha, the pre-
paration of which is nothing less than disgusting ; but haying
been often described by former travellers, since it is in common
use in many parts of South America, I need not frirther refer to it
than to state that it is not alone appreciated by the Indians; for
the whites and Europeans in Bolivia, as a rule, take to it with
apparent relish. Chicha is also made from the quinoa seeds. In
some parts a fermented drink is made by the Indians from the
sweet stalk of the young green Indian com, called ''huiru''
(wiru) : this is the name of the stalk. Of late years, however,
the establishment of large manufactories on the coast of Peru for
the distillation of " chancaca,'^ or unrefined sugar and molasses,
has sent in great quantities of a very inferior white rum, or
'' aguardiente'' as it is called, amongst these Indians, and is
rapidly doing great mischief amongst them.
The two main dishes of the Aymara cuisine are the chupe
and the chairo. The former of these is common all over the
northern cotmtries (at least of the Pacific coast) of South Ame-
rica, and consists of a soup made with potatoes and any flesh or
fowl which may be to hand, as well as any other vegetables conve-
nient, never omitting to add some red-pepper pods. The chairo,
however, is peculiar to the highlands of Bolivia and Peru, its
fundamental ingredient being chuno instead of potatoes; and to
this, as in the case of the chupe, any flesh (generally of the
llama or sheep) or fowl is added. Although, from the dirty-looking
leather-like fragments of chu&o which mainly compose it, the
chairo has at first a far frt>m inviting aspect, which certainly
would not recommend it at a European table, a taste for it is
soon acquired, and it is even relished by the traveller who visits
the inhospitable Puna of Bolivia and Pern.
The Aymara Indian, in his cuisine, is not, however, content
merely with the productions of the vegetable and animal king-
dom, amongst which I forgot to enumerate the aquatic larva of
a species of diptera called ** chichi,'' which is found in abun-
dance in the rivers of the Puna, and from which he makes a
ragout seasoned with red pepper said to be excellent. He also
applies to the mineral kingdom, not only for the salt which he
employs as a condiment, but also for the clay which, extraor-
dinarily enough, he adds, often in considerable quantity, to the
chupe or chairo before described.
In the city of La Paz I foimd that clay prepared for this pur-
pose was regularly sold in the market, under the name of
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250 David Forbes — On theAymara Indians
"ppassa" (the Aymara name for crude clay being "llinquc") ;
and going amongst the Indians myself when they were cooking
their dinners in the streets near the market-place^ I saw how
they added it to and mixed it with the other constituents of
their chupe^ eating the whole apparently with good relish.
Afterwards^ when I purchased from them a large bag of this
'^ppassa^' for the purpose of bringing it to England^ I continu-
ally found that my own Indians pilfered from it^ to add to their
own food^ and declared to me that they considered it to improve
greatly the taste of the soup.
When in La Paz I went to see the Indians digging out this
clay from the deposits in the alluvial formation through which
the Bio de la Paz runs^ the only preparation which it received
on the spot being to separate as much as possible aU the small
stones and fine gravel by hand^ or by a sieve; before being sold
in the market^ however^ it undergoes some further preparation,
which appears to consist in kneading it up between the hands
into doughy lumps, which looked as if they had been mixed
with a minute quantity of lard or some other fatty matter; in
this state, although it stiU feels very gritty when tried between
the teeth, it is used and sold for immediate consumption.
The idea having been put forward that the clays or earths
known to be eaten by certain Indian tribes contaiQ a small
quantity of organic matter capable of being assimilated by the
human system, I, in order to see whether this might be the case
with the clay eaten by the Aymaras, made a complete analysis
of a sample taken with my own hands at La Paz, and obtained
the following results : —
SiUca 60-64
Alumina 8019
Lime , 1-09
Magnesia 0*87
Protoxide of Iron 9*64
Protoxide of Manganese 0*49
Potash, with trace of Soda 3'76
Water 2-28
Organic matter and loss 1*05
lOOOOO
frt>m which it will be perceived that this day, which geologi-
cally is a product of the wearing-down of the clay slates, and
the granite intruded amongst them, of the Silurian forma-
tion of the high Andes, really contains no dement of nourish-
ment; and therefore I imagine that the custom of eating it is
merely for the purpose of keeping the stomach more diatended,
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oj Bolivia and Peru. 251
and retaimng the food longer under the action of the gastric
joice^ so as to make the most of the extremely small allowance
of food which the Indians of the Puna exist upon when they
have to provide for themselves; for I have practically proved
that they can and always will tsike in a very large supply when
they can procure it at the cost of the white man.
The so-called " calcareous earth/^ which^ according to Hum-
boldt*^ is sold in the streets of Popayan and several parts of
Peru as an eatable^ is evidently not an earth at all ; but only the
ashes of wood or plants commonly sold in order to be used
along with the coca-leaf chewed by the Indians.
TUs ash is prepared for that purpose. That from the wood of
the quenua tree^ which grows in abundance on the Puna^ and is
something like a wild olive tree in appearance, is generaUy con-
sidered the best, from its being strongest in alkidi ; the ash of
the banana is held to be next in quidity : but all sorts of ash
fipom cacti, shrubs, or trees are employed; and in the north of
Peru even burned lime is used, although not considered equally
good for the purpose.
The ash is usuallv made up with a little water, and kneaded
into small pieces, sticks, or cakes, sometimes with the figure of
a saint stamped upon them ; and they are regularly sold in the
market under the Aymara name of '^ llucta.'^
The use of a substance like vegetable ashes containing alkali,
or an alkaline earth like lime, along with the coca-leaf by the
Aymara and Quechua tribes of Peru and Bolivia is altogether
analogous to the custom so prevalent in the East Indies of add-
ing lime when chewing the betel nut {Areca catechu) or betel
leaf {Piper betel) ; and in both cases the object of this addition
appears to be for the purpose of setting free the vegetable alka-
loid of the plant. The Indians declare that the coca-leaf will not
yield up its virtues when chewed alone.
The coca plant {Erythroxylon coca) does not, however, grow
in the higher regions, and is not even known as a wild plant (at
least as far as I could learn) even in the Yungas or tropical val-
leys to the east of the Andes, where it is cultivated by the
Aymara and Quechua colonists on a very considerable scale.
Although used by all the Indian tribes of this part of South
America, it is consumed in larger quantities by the Aymaras
than by any other nation; and its name appears to be of
Aymara origin, the word " coca,'* as it is usucdly spelt by the
Spaniards, being evidently only the Aymara word ^* ccoca,'' sig-
nifying a plants bush, or tree, apparently applied to it as the plant
par excellence, just as amongst the Hispano- Americans the Fara-
* < Aspects of Nature.' Philadelphia edition, 1849, p. 150.
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252 Dayid Forbes — On the Aynuxra Indians
guay tea is always called only " Yerba/' t. e. the herb. Fram
the oldest times it seems to have been esteemed as the most pre-
cious of all y^etable productions, the Indians, as before men-
tioned, always making it a part of their offerings to their gods ;
and even at present they hang on the altars of the Virgin or
Roman Catholic saints small packages of coca-leaves bound up
nicely in maize husks into the form of the letter Y, as offerings
likely to be acceptable, at least, according to their ideas. Under
the dominion of the Incas the coca was held in very great
esteem, and, being regarded as a luxury, was not allowed to be
an article of general consumption amongst the lower classes.
The Aymara Indian, especially when travelling, is rarely if
ever seen without his ^'istalla,'' or small bag, which contains his
supply of coca-leaves, firom which he takes out a pinch of the
leaves (say, about firom 1 to 2 drachms) at a time, in order to fonn
his quid or '' aculli,^^ as it is termed in his language. Before doing
so, however, (or, as the Spaniards say, beginning to '' acculicar,'')
he generally sits down at ease on the ground, always relieving
himself of any load or other object he may be carrying ; and
then, picking out leaf by leaf, he turns them in his mouth so as
to moisten them well, and forms them into a small ball or quid,
which he carries, when conversing, inside his left cheek*. This
he now takes out ; and, opening it, he places inside of it a small
quantity of the " llucta" or aULaline ash, and then, returning it
to his mouth, he commences chewing it for an hour or two, until
he considers it exhausted, when he again repeats the operation
as before, continuing to do so with such regularity that amongst
themselves the Indians often describe the distance between two
places as being equal to so many " accullis.'' The verb " accidi-
car " is used amongst the Bolivians to denote this operation ; and,
as far as I could perceive, the Indian, as a rule, seems to swallow
the saliva, and not to expectorate, as in the case of chewing
tobacco. Having had to provide the coca necessary for a large
number of Indians in my employ, I found that, on an average,
each Indian used about | of a pound per week, but occasionidly
more : my old Aymara man-servant Mateo always took his one
pound per week ; but he admitted himself that it was too much,
and it is generally considered among the Indians that more than
this amount is injurious to the system. The whites, negroes,
or Cholos in Bolivia and Peru do not as a rule make use of coca;
and it is stated that when they do commence chewing it they
generally carry its employment to a very injurious excess.
Cholos are said to occasionally take as much as three pounds per
* In most of the little images of silver or gold found in the ancient grsTes
the left cheek is shown to be swelled out by the coca quid.
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of Bolivia and Peru, 253
week; and I was told that a Negro who took as much as one
pound per day became demented in consequence ; but I cannot
vouch for the truth of these statements.
The women amongst the Aymaras^ at least as far as my own
experience goes, never employ coca, nor are the Bolivian soldiers
allowed to use it; the Peruvian soldiers, although not furnished
with rations of coca, are not prohibited firom occasionally pur-
chasing it at their own expense when on the march ; the Quechua
Indians of Cochabamba, Chuqidsaca, and Santa Cruz do not chew
coca; nor is it employed by the tribes of the lower tropical re-
gions of Bolivia; so that the custom is in great measure confined
to the highland Indians of Peru and Bolivia. I found that the
coca-leaf when used as tea, only taking care to throw away the
firstwater or infusion, which contains a bitter principle, was re-
fireshing, and somewhat stimulating to the weak stomach.
A somewhat careful study of this habit of chewing the coca-
leaf does not at all convince me that its true properties have
anything like the marvellous characters commonly ascribed to
it by previous travellers in general; for, as before mentioned,
I found quite as much power of endurance under similar cir-
cumstances amongst those of this race who did not chew the
leaf at all as amongst those who did; and it must be remem-
bered that amongst the Indians themselves it is never regarded
in the light of a necessity, but always as an indulgence (in other
words, as a luxury, like tobacco in Europe), and that they often
apply the Spanish word " vido,*' or vice, when speaking of its
employment.
Just as in many out-of-the-way parts of Europe men can be
bribed to do little services by what is called '' a drink '' more
easily than by the offer of payment in coin, so I found with
these Indians, that by carrying with me a smaJl bale or " cesto,''
as it is called, of coca-leaves, and giving them a handful on such
occasions, I coidd supply the deficiency of small change (so dif-
ficult to be obtained in these countries), and get what I wanted
both more cheaply and cheerfully performed at the same time.
In the highlioids of Peru and Bolivia it is only at rare inter-
vals that any trees are seen, or even brushwood; so thieit no re-
liance can be placed on a supply of fuel from the vegetable
kingdom. The combustible i^ but universally employed is
'^tajia,'' or the dried Uama-dung. As the excrements of these
animak are in the form of small round balls like those from the
sheep, it is fortunate that these animals, as also the allied spe-
cies the Alpaca, Huanaco, and Vicuna, when pressed by the calls
of nature, do not scatt^ their dung at random, but if left to
themselves (i. e. not driven) always resort to fixed spots, so that
Uttle heaps of a bushel or more are found at each spot, very con-
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254 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indiana
venient for the Indian, who otherwise would find it an endless
task to collect a similar quantity. Owing to the dry winds and
peculiar climate of the highlands, the dung rapidly loses the
water it contains, and forms an excellent fael, giving a good red
heat with little or no smoke ; it is not only employed in culinary
operations, but on a larger scale is used for smelting the copper-
ores (100 lbs. dung smelting 80 lbs. copper ore) and casting
bronze for bell- or cannon-metal or other purposes.
The vessels made use of by the Aymaras in cooking are inva-
riably of baked clay ; and it is perfectly astonishing to see how
expert the women (and even the children) are, without the assist-
ance of a potter's lathe, in making them merely with their hands.
The shapes in general use at present amongst them are given in
fig. 4, PI. XX. ; whilst fig. 3, PI. XX. represents one of the small
earthen cooking-stoves which the women put up at the door
of their huts, erecting them in an extraordinarily short space
of time. When the clay is quite dry it is burnt whilst in position,
and answers remarkably well for heating the earthen pots placed
in the orifices. I have often been amused when the Indian
women quarrelled amongst themselves, to see that they, as one of
the first symptoms of anger, generally make a rush at each other's
stoves, kicking them to pieces with revengeful pleasure.
The dwellings of the Aymara Indians are small, rude, square,
oval, or circular 'huts, usually of rough stone put together with
clay and thatched with '' ichu,^' a species of long coarse grass,
something like esparto grass. In the towns and villages the
houses are usually square, with gables, but rarely possess any
window at all, or at most only a small sighthole, ordinarily stop-
ped up with some few stones ; the doors of the houses are always
extremely small. In the town of Santiago de Machaca, I had
the curiosity to measure the dimensions of the door of the house
in which I lodged, and found it to be only 3 feet in height by
15 inches in extreme width, the angles at top and bottom being
somewhat rounded off, so as to give the opening a slightly oval
shape. The door itself is made of a couple of boards, or more
often of a raw hide stretched and dried over a wooden frame ;
but in the out-of-the-way districts no door is used beyond a
poncho, which is htmg up across the opening when the hut is
tenanted ; when the family is absent the entrance is blocked up
by loose stones placed one on another.
Furniture is rarely or ever used even in the houses of the
richer Indians ; a chair or table is rarely if ever seen, as the In-
dians invariably take their meals whilst squatting down on their
haunches (never crosslegged however), with the dishes placed on
the ground beside them. Whenever a table is seen, it is usually
a little thing standing about 15 inches high firom the floor. On
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one occasion at San Andres I noticed a chair with the figure of
a double-headed Eagle carved upon it^ which puzzled me for
some time^ until I remembered that the iron bottles used for
exporting quicksilver from Idria, and which occasionally come to
the amalgamating-establishments attached to the Bolivian and
Peruvian silver-mines have the Austrian Eagle stamped upon
them ; and no doubt this had been copied from them.
The walls of the huts are alwajrs quite bare^ and the floor
merely the natural soil of the spot — often (in fact^ more com-
monly) somewhat lower than the level of the ground outside the
hovel. There is never more than one room in a house ; and
along one side of this a raised sort of bench of mud^ about twenty
inches high and broad, is usually seen, which is used as a bench,
as a bed, or for sitting upon, whilst a similar one, about six feet
long and some four feet broad, at the end of the room is employed
as a bedstead to sleep upon.
In the out-of-the-way places I observed circular or oval stone
huts ; such have been called beehive houses, the stones forming
the roof and sides not being arched, but i^proaching one another
little by little until they meet in the form of a dome ; I found
an excellent example of this construction, well and neatly put
together, on the slope of the mountain of lUampu. This mea-
sured, internally, 9^ feet long by 5 feet broad, and 5 feet in
height; the door, which was on the longer side of the oval, was
straight, 3 feet high and 18 inches broad; no chimney or other
opening for smoke was visible.
Notwithstanding that the present dwellings of the Aymara
Indians are so wretched and rude in their construction, the
Aymara appears nevertheless to have a natural talent for archi-
tecture ; and I am informed by Bolivian architects, and have
myself also proved, that he is very quick in picking up any thing
novel in masonry when shown to him. Some of the churches
met with in out-of-the-way districts, although built entirely by
the Indians, with their " cura,^' as the village priest is called, at
their head as architect, and without plans or tools, except such
as are of the rudest conceivable nature, occasionally show proofs
of considerable skill. In 1863 1 was surprised to see some htm-
dred Indians rebuilding the church at El Disaguadero, on the
Lake of Titicaca, in Peru, and dressing the stones for the edifice
with no other implements than stones and a few pickaxes and
other rude agricultural instruments made of iron ; such a thing as
an iron hammer or chisel was not to be foimd amongst them.
Seiior Munos, the architect of the Cathedral of La Paz, fur-
ther informed me that the beautiful Corinthian columns made
of hard white granite, finished in a style which would not dis-
grace a first-rate European establishment, were all made by the
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256 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
untaught Indian masons after his drawings; they, however,
would not make use of the hammers he provided them with, but
accepted his steel chisels, which they hit with a round stone held
in the palm of the hand, in a similar manner to that m which
their ancestors had no doubt been accustomed to work at
Tiahuanaco and elsewhere.
In ancient times ». e, (before the eleventh century, or Inca
conquest) the Aymaras possessed an architecture peculiar to
themselves, apparently of a much higher character than that of
any of the other nations of South America : full evidence attest-
ing this is to be seen at the present day in some of the magni-
ficent ruins at Tiahuanaco, near the southern extremity of Lake
Titicaca; an examination of which, however, leads to the con-
clusion that they are probably of two very different dates, the
one being evidently earlier and of a much ruder character than
the other, which is of vastly superior workmanship. Although
these ruins are by the older Spanish writers represented as being
of immense antiquity, or, as they firequently express it, works of
a period before there was a sun in the heavens''^, it appears that
part of these were not even completed, and were probably in
course of construction, at the time of the conquest of that part
of the Aymara country by the third Inca, Lloque Yupanki, some
time before his death in 1026; so that the downfall of the Aymara
civilization may be reckoned firom about this date.
When at this place, I took drawings, on a considerable scale, of
the principal features of these interesting ruins ; but upon my
return to Europe I found that various figures and descriptions
of several of the more important sculptures and monoliths had
already been published by other writers; so that at present I
purpose only to add a few remarks upon points which, as far as
I am aware, have not as yet received any attention. In the first
place I may mention that the stone of which the buildings and
sculptures are formed is of two very different characters. The
one is a light red sandstone, which forms the hills in the imme-
diate neighbourhood, and is probably the equivalent of the
Devonian formation, since I obtained fossils of undoubted De-
vonian age from the beds of similar sandstone at Aygatchi, not
far distant from Tiahuanaco. The other stone, however, is
very different in nature, being a hard, tough, and compact vol-
canic rock, precisely the same as what was originally called
Andesite by G. Rose, from a specimen brought home from
Cotopaxi by Humboldt, and which is a true Trachydolerite.
Notwithstanding its great hardness, most of the sculptured
* Diego D'Avalos y Fi^puioa, in MiaceL Austral (Lima, 1602) p. 145: ^Oim
de antes que hubiese sol in el cielo."
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of Bolivia and Peru. 257
work, the great monolithic portals and some of the finer figures^
are made of this rock ; and to this day they retain all the sharp-
new^ of their edges, and, to a considerable extent^ even the
original polish on their surfaces ; whilst a few others^ made of
the sandstone before alluded to, are in a very dilapidated condi-
tion.
The size of some of the great blocks of stone employed in one
of these buildings'*^ is very imposing. I measured one which
appeared to be of the largest, and found it to be about 27 feet
long, 18 broad, and 7 thick, so that, as it was of sandstone, it
could not have weighed less than one hundred and sixty tons. It
seems very difficult to explain how these Indians, with their
imperfect mechanical appliances, and no beasts of draught,
^ could handle and transport such masses from their original
sites, in order to place them in their proper positions in pdaces
or temples situated on the top of artificial mounds raised some
40 feet or more above the level of the plain itself.
Although the sandstone has evidently been taken from the
hills seen at but a few miles distance from Tiahuanaco, the vol-
canic stone of which the two great monolithic portals &c. have
been constructed has been conveyed a very great distance from
the volcanic mountains on the other or western side of Lake Ti-
ticaca, where the quarries are still visible ; and there still remains
at the edge of the lake an immense block hewn out into the form
of a sort of sofa or divan, which has received from the Spaniards
the appellation of " La Piedra Cansada,^^ or stone which got
tired, which no doubt had been left behind when on its
road to Tiahuanaco, at the time that the invasion of the Inca
Lloque Yupanki put an end to the building of the great palace
there.
An examination of the situation of the ruins of Tiahuanaco
shows them to be in a narrow plain (bounded at the sides by
two small ranges of hills) which, although extending a consider-
able distance from the present shore of the lake, is but very
slightly elevated above the level of its waters, makes me believe
that the lake (or, more correctly speaking, an arm of it) in former
times extended to Tiahuanaco, and that, probably, the rise of its
waters in the rainy season inundated the plain itself, and thus
enabled the Indians to transport the great blocks of stone pre-
viously alluded to from the other side of the lake on rafts up to
the very site of the edifices themselves. This view seemed to
me to be confirmed by my finding in a small pool of water situ-
ated in the midst of these ruins, the Totora or great Titicaca
* I was told by one of the Cholos there that this had been called the pa-
lace of Pumapuiuku (of the gate of the Puma) ; but whether this is correct or
not I am unaole to say.
VOL. H. Digitized%y Google
258 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indiana
rush growing luxuriantly^ although I understand that it is nerer
found elsewhere than in the lake itself or the Disaguadero riyer
leading from it; the great artificial mounds on which the build-
ings themselves are placed also seemed to favour the idea of the
plain being at times intmdated.
When we remember that the Indians were unacquainted
with steel or iron implements^ it seems perfectly unexplainable
how these Indians could work the hard volcanic rock to such
perfection; the Aymaras have, it is true, a word for iron,
** qaella/* in their language; whence quella^cahua a coat of
mail, and quellahuisca an iron chain ; but it seems to me that
this word, before the arrival of the Spaniards, was in reality only
applied to iron-ore, i . e. the black heavy magnetic oxide of iron
commonly found native in Peru and Bolivia, and employed by
the Indians for clubheads, one of which is depicted in PL XX.
fig. 5, from a grave at Calacota, was some 2^ inches long by
1 J inches thick, neatly worked with a groove around it by which
to fasten it to the handle^. Some of their tools of bronze were
capable of taking a pretty good edge, but would stand a very
short time if used for cutting stone ; we must remember, how-
ever, that the wonderful patience and perseverance of these and
many other of the South- American tribes would, with imlimited
time at their disposal, enable them to overcome difficulties other-
wise seemingly insurmountable. In 1863 I was extremely asto-
nished to see the Indians rebuilding the church at El Disagua-
dero work hour after hour, one might almost say day after day,
in order to square or dress the sides of a rough stone, with the
aid only of another one used as a hammer, when a few strokes
of a civilized mason's hammer and chiBcl would have effected
the same result in as many minutes.
Everywhere in both Peru and Bolivia the idea prevails that in
ancient times all these stones were cut after having been pre-
viously rendered soft by the application of an herb called by the
Indians tisccraj and by the Spaniards garbandUo; this is said
to have been used along with urine, and left upon the stone for
some time before cutting it. If the stone in question was of a
calcareous nature, such as might possibly be acted upon by
the vegetable acids which might be formed by the acid fermen-
tation of the juices of plants, this explanation might be entitled
to some consideration ; but as the stones used at Tiahuanaco are
all either composed mainly of silica or silicates quite unaffected
• In like maimer the Ajmaras have a word for glass^ *' quupi,** whence
qmspinaira^ 8|>ectacle8y literally glass eyes; since they were quite nnac-
quamted with the artificial product this tenn was no doubt formfflrly applied
only to quartz or rock crystal, just as in Europe it is at present common to
use the word crystal to denote certain varieties of glass.
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of Bolivia and Peru. 259
by even the stronger acids, excepting only such as contain
fluorine, I imagine that this commonly recdved supposition has
no foundation, but that it may possibly have arisen from seeing
the Indians employ the Mare's-tail, a species of equiseium, for
rubbing the stones in order to give the exterior a final polish,
for which this plant is well qualified, firom the amount of sharp
silidous matter contained in its rind and substance.
One distinctive feature in the Aymara architecture is the con-
stant use of the right angle ; an acute or obtuse angle is rarely
if ever seen in any of the buildings, the blocks of stone being
as a rule dressed on all sides at right angles to one another and
then fitted together with perfect accuracy, often, when very large,
being held fast by cramps of copper fixed into holes with melted
tin or lead. Every comer, slot, or depression in these stones
is cut in the most clean and workmanlike manner, the angles
being as it were as mathematically correct and the surface as
plane and smooth as if made by the most perfect machinery of
the present day. The cross (especially when sunk into the stone)
is extremely common as an ornament, but, as far as I observed,
has its arms always of equal length. In respect to architecture,
at least, the Aymaras seem to have been far in advance of their
conquerors the Quechuas, whose cyclopean masonry about Cusco
and elsewhere, although put together with such consummate
skill that the blade of a knife can scarcely be introduced be-
tween the joints of the stones, is but of a rude character when
compared with the beautiful dressed stonework and sculptures seen
in the Aymara ruins at Tiahuanaco ; the two styles of architec-
ture are altogether difi^rent and distinct, one striking peculiarity
being that the form of the portals or doors in the Aymara ma-
sonry is invariably rectangular and upright, whereas in the
Quechua the sides are inclined inwards at the top, exactly as
in the ancient Egyptian.
Many ruins of ancient Aymara towns, from the time be-
fore the Spanish conquest, called by the Spaniards ''Pue-
blos de Los Oentiles,'' can still be seen in various parts of
Bolivia, some of them being now in almost exactly the same
condition as when last inhabited ; they are usually situated on
the summits of hills, probably for facility of defence. One
of these, called by the Indians Himoco, on the east side of lake
Titicaca, between Carabuco and Ancoraimes, is of considerable
extent, surrounded with walls having gateways, and with streets,
some of which seem to have been paved, arranged at right
angles to one another, and leading into several squares or mar-
ket-places. The houses are tolerably well built of red sand-
stones, with stone roofs, and are small rectangular rooms, most of
which have a sort of stone shelf, like a mantelpiece, in one
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260 David Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
comer. The only traces of inhabitants seen at present are the
occasional occurrence of straggling bones or of an entire skeleton.
In one or two of the' houses little rude eflSgies of men^ made of
clay^ hung up by a string round the neck^ or pierced through the
boay with a thom^ were met with — evidently remnants of witch-
craft.
In the high mountain-passes of the Eastern Andes near So-
rata^ which lead down to the tropical valleys of Tipuani Stc.^
I noticed considerable ruins^ like fortresses^ perched up on the
sides of the precipices overlooking the valley^ in the most won-
derfully inaccessible positions^ and probably at an elevation of
more than 16^000 feet above the sea^ since they were on the very
edge of the perpetual snow. These looked as if originally in-
tended to guard the passes from invasions of the Indians from
the east ; yet^ at the same time^ I can hardly imagine any induce-
ment in the cold highland regions which oould tempt the far
less hardy races of the tropics below to make such raids.
Excepting the ruins of palaces or temples previously noticed,
the country of the Aymaras presents but few traces of public
works, such as roads, aqueducts, reservoirs, &c., -more common
amongst the Quechuas. The roads are but rude Uama-tracks,
and never seem to have had such attention directed to them as
is shown by the Inca government in Peru. Permanent bridges
are seen nowhere; but the rivers, when not fordable, are crossed
by rafts made of rushes tied together in bundles, or by what is
called a "maroma''— that is, a rope (made of raw hide or of Uama-
wool in the highlands, and of "lUanas *' or long vines or creepers
in the tropical valleys) which is stretched across the river firom
bank to bank, and has aerosspiece or cradle suspended, in which
the passenger seats himself and hauls himself along, or is pulled
over with a cord. The Rio Disaguadero, which runs south
from lake Titicaca, is crossed in several places by floating
bridges, formed by attaching one to another numerous '^balsas''
or rafts, formed of bundles of totora, the great Titicaca rush,
upon which a sort of platform is made by spreading a large
quantity of the loose rushes. No wheeled vehicles being used
in these parts of South America, these primitive bridges serve
very well for the passage of the llamas, mules, and other animals,
as well as for men on foot.
The chief occupations of the Aymara Indians, now as in more
ancient times, are agricultural and pastoral. The metallic riches
of the country seem to have been comparatively little attended to
before the arrival of the Spaniards. They were, however, well-
acquainted with the metals gold, silver, copper, and tin, and
made use of several alloys of these metals : one of gold and
opper, called ^^champi,^' was much used for making small
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of Bolivia and Peru. 261
images and certain ornaments and tools. Bronze was also in
very general use. The analysis made by me of a bronze head
of a chieftain's club or mace, which was found at Sorata, and is
about 3^ inches across the extreme tips of the spikes, of which
there are thirteen in all, showed its composition to be as fol-
lows : —
Copper 8805
Tin 11-42
Iron •. 0-86
SUver 017
10000
from which it is evidently quite identical with many of the
ancient bronzes of Europe. This club had been cast, and has
a socket in which there is a crosspin for attaching the handle
by means of a leather thong. The Aymaras evidently under-
stood the art of soldering metals ; for I found many little figures
of llamas and men, some of which, in the British Museum,
can be seen to be hollow, and made of thin plate silver nicely
soldered at the joints.
Tin, called in Aymara ^'causi'' or "titi,'' has been fipom
time immemorial obtained from the stream tin-ore worked at
Carabuco on the east side of Lake Titicaca, and in the district
Oruro, where it is still obtained in large quantities. Gold,
" chocque,'' is generally found in the alluvial deposits of the
rivers, whence many of the Aymara names of places, Chuque-
apo (now La Paz), Chuqueaguillo, Chuqesaca (now Sucre), which
denote respectively the valley, river, or plain of gold. Silver,
'^colcqui,'' found native in veins, appears to have been also
worked out of certain beds amongst the cupriferous sandstone
series of Corocoro, in which it occurs finely disseminated in a
native state, whilst the main supply of native copper was evi-
dently furnished from those same deposits, which appear to have
been worked from extremely ancient periods.
The domestic industries, as spinning, weaving, dyeing, &c.,
are carried on by the women, who still continue to furnish the
greater part of the clothing of the household, although, at least
around the larger towns, cotton and woollen fabrics of European
manufacture have come into considerable use amongst the
Indians. I have occasionally noticed spinning-wheels and looms
of an extremely rude construction; but in the majority of instances
I found that the wool was spun into yam by the hand ; and
afterwards, when stretched out on the ground by pegs, it is
woven by hand into cloth, without the aid of a loom at all.
They, as a rule, sell all their alpaca and sheep's wool, but reserve
the llama-wool, which is of a very inferior quality, for making
their clothes, as well as their cords and ropes. The llama is, to
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262 Datid Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
the Indian what the reindeer is to the Laplander ; for^ besides
being his sole beast of burden^ its wool and hide senre for
clothings the flesh for food^ the bones for his tools, musical instru-
ments^ &C.J whilst its dung is the general^ and in many places
the only combustible at command. The Indian women are veiy
clever in dyeing their wools^ and also in knittings and at their
fairs often bring for sale curious little bags^ purses, &c. made
in the shape of llamas, turkeys, and other animals, very in-
geniously knitted in wool of divers colours. Aroimd the lake
of Titicaca I have seen socks and gloves for children made of
the down of the waterfowl, which had apparently been first
spun into yam and then knitted.
Fishing is pursued chiefly on the Lake of Titicaca. The In-
dians, not having any boats, or wood to make them of, use as a
substitute the totora or great Titicaca rush, which they tie to-
gether in bundles to form a '' balsa'' or species of raft.
Hunting can hardly be said to be followed at all by the
Indians, although there are large herds of vicunas running wild
over the mountains and plains, and also the huanaco, deer,
biscacho, skunk, fox, weasel, and the puma, as well as a bear,
which last animal, however, I never came across, and, I believe,
it is rarely seen. Amongst the birds are numerous condors (quite
unfit for food, as I have found upon trial), the S. American ostrich,
flamingo, numerous species of ducks, water-hens, divers, geese,
ibis, snipe, &c., many of them very good eating.
As the Indian, however, has neither firearms nor bows and ar-
rows, he has no means of following the chase ; the only weapon
which he uses is the sling ('^huaraca''), made of llama wool, which
occasionally he employs with some dexterity. The fox is caught
in a rude stone trap, shown in section, plate XXI. fig. 9, in wUch
the bait 'is tied on with a piece of raw hide, which, being
gnawed away, causes the stone door to fall and imprison the
fox, which is afterwards taken out through the hole at the other
end of the trap, closed by a stone. When a puma has com-
mitted any ravages amongst their animals, the Indians of the
district follow up its tracks in parties, relieving one another
night and day, without allowing it a moment's rest, until the
animal is literally run down, brought to bay, and despatched
with sticks and stones. In March, 1862, at lUabaya, I saw an
instance of such a turn-out, the animal being hunted down, and
literally knocked to pieces by the Indians, who drank up its
blood, under the belief that it implants courage in the person
who does so.
The culture of the ground, which is the main and most labo-
rious occupation of the Indian, is effected by very rude imple-
ments. The plough, called '' arma," is driven by one or two
oxen, tied to it by a lasso or rope of untanned leatherpand is of
oyVjOC
JouTP. -LUmo. 3oc. Vol. J- PI XXl
wn
Fig. 9.
nigiti7PHhyC ^OOglP
AYMARA IMPLEMENTS tc.
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of Bolivia and Peru. . 263
a very rimple construction, consisting, as shown in plate XXI.
fig. 3, of three pieces of wood tied together by thongs of raw
hide, and, as might be expected, does little more than scratch
the surface of the soil. The Aymara representative of the
spade, fig. 4, pL XXI., called " oiso," is but a pole of hard wood,
about 7 feet long, sharpened and hardened at the end by char-
ring the wood externally. It has a curved handle, and a support
for the feet, like a couple of horns, on the right side of the
handle, tied on to it with raw hide. The next important imple-
ment is the ocana, a sort of pickaxe, fig. 5, pi. XXI., which is
now always made of a piece of flat iron, tied on with raw hide
to a hooked stick as a handle, whilst in the out-of-the-way places
a hoe, " asadon,'' sketched in fig. 6, pi. XXI., is still used, formed
merely of the shoidder-bladeof the Uama, tied on to a hooked stick,
as shown in the illustration. Besides these, they also employ a sort
of mace or club, fig. 7, pi. XXI., consisting merely of a stone tied
on to a stick, as a dod-crusher''^, and an axe of iron or steel,
which in the out-of-the-way districts is still made by the Aymara
smiths in precisely the same form (fig. 8, pi. XXI.) as the ancient
ones of copper or bronze, being merely a flat piece of metal of
the form shown in the figure, placed in a cleft stick, which
serves as a handle, and secured in it by a thong of raw hide
bound tightly around it.
I was informed that,insome very much out-of-the-way districts,
bronze and, even, stone axes may occasionally be seen employed
by the Indians ; but I have not personally fallen in with such
implements, yet can believe that this may actually be the case.
The Indians, as a rule, make their fields of a very small size,
usually surrounding them with walls of dry stone. On the
mountain-sides they build up small terraces one above another,
in some cases up to very great altitudes. Since they appear
never to manure the land, they make a rule of only sowing it
with crops once every fifth year, allowing it to remain fallow for
the intermediate four, in order, as they say, that it may repose
or recover itself. This circumstance must naturally be taken
into due account when the traveller in these districts judges as
to the number of inhabitants firom the amount of land enclosed
or under apparent cultivation. The crops generally sown are
potatoes, ordinary and bitter, ocas, quinoa, and beans, along
with maize or Indian corn in the more sheltered valleys or lower
grounds. A bearded variety of wheat is also cultivated in some
parts ; but I do not think it is very productive. In the more tem-
perate parts, lucem is grown as a green fodder for the beasts.
Barley is also sown as fodder in considerable quantity; but,
* One of these may be seen in the Christy collection of the British
Museum. /^^^r^T^
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264 David Forbes — On the Aynwra Indians
except what is required for seed, it is not allowed to come to
maturity, being cut down before it is ripe, and employed for the
cattle whole, t. e, along with its straw.
A great expense and trouble to the traveller in these districts
is the difficulty experienced in obtaining from the Indians a suf-
ficient supply of barley to keep his animals alive ; threats, and even
physical force, must sometimes be resorted to ; for the Indians
are so accustomed to be cheated that they can hardly be con-
vinced that you are really willing to pay them for what they
furnish. When a detachment of the army passes through the
country, the corregidores, or heads of the district, summon the
alcaldes or foremen of the Indians, and require them, within a
certain time, to bring forward the amount of barley necessary
for the beasts, for which they are paid far less than its real
value. On one occasion, at Achecache, when I was present,
the barley, which was extremely scarce that year, was only paid
by the cavalry at 3 rials a quintal instead of 15, which was the
actual price ruling in the district; besides which, instead of
weighing a quintal, they still further imposed upon the Indians
by measuring it in the following, to me, somewhat novel man-
ner:— Two of the tallest soldiers of the troop were made to
stand upright, so far apart that their forefiugcr-tips coidd just
reach one another when one of the arms of each was extended
at full length ; all the barley which could be packed into the
space between their bodies from the ground up to under the
arms was then taken as a quintal, although in reality much
more; but (as the unfortunate Indian well knew) complaints
were useless.
The practice of cutting barley before it arrives at maturity,
although common in many parts of South America, where it is
done in order that the straw itself may be sweeter and more
palatable to the animals, seems in these highlands to be, as it
were, enforced by the severity of the climate, since only in more
sheltered spots does the grain fully ripen before die finosts
commence.
The coca-leaf, so much employed by these Indians, does not
grow in the higher regions of Bolivia and Peru, and is chiefly
cultivated in the hot valleys of the province of Yungas *, to the
east of the high Andes, by Indian colonists, who formerly were
forcibly sent there for the purpose, but now, since the inde-
pendence, are enticed there by high wages, to engage themselves
for longer or shorter periods. The mortality among these colo-
nists is very great ; so that since they have not been compelled to
go there, great extents of the plantations or cocales, as they are
called, formerly planted with coca, have been abandoned and
• The word " yungas " is not A jniara, but Quechua, in which Uogua^
** yunca " eignifiw hot, C c^c^n\o
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of Bolivia and Peru, 265
become overgrown with forest^ owing to the impossibility of
obtaining hands to cultivate them. In Ynngas all the slopes of
the hills^ at an elevation of &om 3000 to 6000 feet above the
sea^ the soil of which is composed of a disintegrated Silurian
clay-slate, are covered with small terraces or, as they are termed
by the Spaniards, Andenes, rising one above another, like the
seats in an ancient amphitheatre, and covered with the small
coca bushes, about from 20 to 30 inches in height, planted in
single rows along each little terrace, which is about 12 inches
in width, and supported by a little wall of stone in front. When
the coca is grown on level ground, which is more seldom the case,
the plants are placed in furrows ('' uachos ") separated from one
another by little walls of stone called ^' umachas/^
Before being transplanted into cocales arranged on either of
the before-mentioned systems, the plant is raised in separate
nurseries, from seed, which, when frequently watered, makes its
appearance above the ground in from ten days to a fortnight ;
the next year these plants, which will then have attained a
height of from 12 to 15 inches, are ready for transplanting to
the cocal, and are sold in large quantities for this purpose, at the
rate (when I was in Yungas in 1861) of two dollars Bolivian
per what is called the " head,'^ t . e. the bundle of plants in size
equal to the circumference of the purchaser's head ; so that the
planter with whom I was residing told me that he always chose
one of his men who had the largest head to buy coca plants
for him. Old plants, however, are much dearer, and were at that
time valued at three rials per plant.
When the plants are between two and three years old, the
leaves first commence to be picked for consumption, and
are stated to yield the most abundant crops between the ages of
three and six years, yet to have an economical life of from
twenty to forty years, and occasionally even more. The plant
is said to be most productive when not allowed to attain a
greater height than about 30 inches, although when not culti«
vated it is said to attain double this height.
The first time the plant is picked the leaves are found to be
coarser in quality, and are seldom exported, being used up by
the Indians on the plantations ; afterwards, in the larger planta-
tions, the pickings (or mitas, as they are called) take place three
times a year, in March, July, and October, which are known
respectively as the Mitas de Marzo, San Juan, and Santos ; the
first of these, taking place immediately after the rainy season,
is the most abundant, and that of July the least prolific. In
the little plantations owned by Indians more care is taken to
pluck the leaves as soon as they are full-grown, and not ac^
cording to fixed times ; by this means they are enabled to get
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266 Datid Forbes — On the Aymara Indians
four cropB a year. The pickings are done by girls, each leaf being
plucked separately firom the plant, and great care being taken
that none of the top shoots are injnred, as otherwise the plants
would die. It is a curious sight to see these girls, often in
great numbers, arranged in rows ; and the noise made by their
nimble fingers when picking the leaves, in which they acquire
wonderful dexterity, is very strange, the sound keeping distinct
time, and being sometimes like the rustle made by the wind
among dry leaves.
The plantations are, as a rule, not irrigated or watered, not-
withstanding that this is known to develope the leaves much
more rapidly, and to ensure the bare plant being covered again
with leaves in even less than two months, so that as much as
five pickings can be obtained from well-irrigated plantations ;
it is considered, however, that such leaves are much inferior in
quality : their colour is not so rich ; and in drying they do not
retain the fine green tint, but acquire a blacker hue, which is not
liked in the market.
The women and children who pick the leaves place them in a
poncho or cloth hung in front of them, and then take them to
the hacienda, where they are spread out in a yard floored with
slabs of slate, turning them frequently in the sun until perfectly
dry. If the weather has been fine, the leaf, when dry, retains its
form and colour, on which the value of it in the market depends.
The dried leaves are then put up in small bales called cestos,
which weigh about an arroba (or 25 pounds) each, and are in this
state sent up to the highlands for the general consumption of
the Indians; on the road, however, the Bolivian government
exacts a duty upon each bale.
The coffee and cacao plantations of these tropical valleys are
also worked by Aymara Indians, of whom a few also engage in the
search of Cascarilla, i . e. the bark of the Cinchona tree, which also
is found in quantity in the hot humid forests on the eastern slopes
of the high Andes, the cascarilla bark of this part of South Ame-
rica being the most esteemed of all the varieties, fetching by
far the highest price in the market, and being considered the
richest in quinine*. Notwithstanding the great inducements
* Most of the men employed in the hark trade are not pure Indians,
but cholos. When, in 1861, 1 was in this district, I obtained from the ca»-
carilleros a quantity of the seeds of what they considered the most valuable of
all the very numerous kinds of this tree, and forwarded them to Sir Roderick
Murchison, who, however, did not receive them before 1864; they were sent
bv him to Kew; but the replv was discouraging, since it was to the efiect
that they must be far too old to germinate. In June 1806, however, Sir
Roderick wrote to me that he had heard from Dr. Hooker that they had been
successfully raised at Kew; but further information I have not received.
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of Bolivia and Peru. 267
held out to the Aymaras by the extremely high rates of wages^ the
Indians will not enter these regions until all other resources fail
them ; for they have an intense horror of these warm climates,
where they, as a rule, die off so very rapidly that but a small pro-
portion of those who enter ever return. For this reason, there-
fore, it is that the vegetable riches and the rich gold-deposits of
this vast tropical region remain as yet quite undeveloped; the
cultivation of the coffee, cacao, &;c. is carried on on a very small
scale ; and the great extent of abandoned and now overgrown
coca plantations attest the imwillingness of the Aymaras to
colonize regions so prejudicial to their health, now that they
have been freed from the Spanish tyranny which previously
forced them away from their homes like slaves, to cultivate
these plantations for the sole benefit of their oppressors.
The animals domesticated by the Aymaras are the llama,
alpaca, sheep, and homed cattle ; the horse, mule, and ass, but
more especidly the latter, are also reared by them. All of these
animals, with exception of the llama and alpaca, are very dif-
ferent in appearance from the fine beasts found in the lower
regions of South America ; the horse especially, although ori-
ginally of the same Andalusian parentage, degenerates greatly,
becomes in these highlands a small scraggy pony, with but
little strength or endurance, and altogether a very inf